Guilt-Free AI: These 6 AI music tools actually pay the artists behind them
AI should be exciting. In a shockingly short amount of time, this tech has spawned new tools, techniques, sounds, and workflows. But despite all the creative potential this opens up, some of the world’s biggest AI companies have managed to turn what could be a positive into a queasy negative.
With an amoral ‘sucks to be you’ ethos and dubious legal justifications, the sum of all human-made music has been inhaled by the algorithms and belched back at us.
But thankfully, some companies are developing AI with music and musicians front of mind.
What makes an AI music tool ethical?
Some may argue that ‘ethical’ and ‘AI’ don’t belong in the same sentence. However, there are plenty of developers and creatives using the technology in ways without stealing creative works to train their software.
When we talk about ethical AI in the context of this article, we’re looking specifically at brands that work collaboratively with musicians, producers and artists to build tools for other creators to use. Far from “make my record sound like XYZ artist”, these tools license material from their collaborators to empower your music-making process. Crucially, these brands also don’t use your material to improve their products.
If you’re looking to harness AI in your music in a more ethical way, these tools should be top of your list.
LANDR
Images: LANDR

You could argue that mastering was the canary in the AI coal mine. Long before we had full song generators and near-perfect vocal deepfakes, computers were mimicking mastering engineers with ear-catching results.
First to gain popularity was LANDR, offering algorithmic mastering services as early as 2014. Although it didn’t prove immensely popular upon launch, in the intervening years the company has steadily improved its algorithms by learning directly from consenting mastering engineers.
Now, even with plenty of stiff competition, LANDR arguably still offers the best balance of affordability, flexibility, and quality. The only downside is that its online mastering comes bundled with music distribution services and other plugins, so if you don’t want these, you’ll have to shell out for the company’s standalone mastering plugin.
Neutone
Project LYDIA by Roland and Neutone. Image: Press

How can we create brand new, never-before-heard sounds with AI? That’s what Neutone hopes to find out. Committed to the ethical use of AI from day one, it’s come armed with datasets either recorded in-house or sourced from the public domain.
From that data, Neutone built Morpho, a tone morphing plugin that takes real-time audio input and transforms its timbre based on the sonic characteristics of an AI model. In simple terms, this means you could use your voice to output drums or use a guitar riff to drive Gregorian chants.
In collaboration with artists, with whom it shares 50% of the model’s profits, Neutone’s already arrived at some fascinating places. One AI model was solely trained on human heartbeats — we’ll leave you to imagine what you could make with that. For an added layer of transparency, you can check out how each model was trained and sourced right inside the plugin.
With the ethics sorted, Neutone is pushing to discover new timbres. This includes a partnership with Roland to embed AI into a physical stompbox, currently named Project LYDIA. On the side, it also has a handful of Max for Live Ableton objects that are worth checking out.
Voice-Swap
Credit: Voice-Swap
AI voice cloning gained a bad reputation early on, and for good reason. While many companies had zero qualms about offering dodgy ripoffs of famous singers and actors, Voice-Swap pursued a radically different path.
From the get-go, it chose to partner directly with singers to create artist-authorised voice models that could legally be used in commercial music. Voice-Swap also adopted a revenue model that pays 50% of the platform’s subscription fees directly to the artists involved.
Beyond the ethics, its voice cloning tech is among the best in the business, and with a VST plugin available and with options to create your own custom voice models, it’s a great option for producers and singers alike.
ACE Studio
ACE Studio 2.0 interface. Image: MusicTech

Perhaps the only way to know what AI music tools will work in the future is to go all in on a head-to-toe AI workstation. It’s a bold move, but ACE Studio is willing to make the leap.
ACE has built a DAW overflowing with AI features, from generating instrumental parts to rendering entire songs from a sketch. In our review, we thought the AI text-to-music concepts weren’t quite there yet, but amongst the many trials and errors there was something to be said for its AI vocal models.
With the musicians involved paid and compensated for their work, we felt free to explore the 140 vocal models on offer. They were stunningly realistic, easy to use with no experience, and there was the added ability to mix and match, blend and tinker with the models to build custom tones.
Moises AI
Moises AI’s Stem Generator. Image: Moises AI
AI in music is a topic almost certain to kick off debate. However, one use you rarely hear people grumble about is stem separation — because it’s just so damn useful. The ability to split a finalised recording into its constituent parts has been a game changer for DJs, remix artists, and anyone needing to perform some audio restoration.
Moises AI partners with musicians, labels and platforms to fully license the music data its models are trained on. In addition, Charlie Puth was appointed as chief music officer of the brand this year, joining Jordan Rudess and Cory Henry as a music partner of the brand.
Major DAWs such as Ableton Live 12, FL Studio and Logic Pro now boast built-in stem separation tools. But, if you’re looking for a focused, lightweight, cheap solution that commits to ethical AI development, then Moises AI is a strong option.
Safari Audio Meaw Chain
Meaw Chain mastering chain. Image: MusicTech

Safari’s Meaw Chain is one of the most interesting AI music plugins to hit the market this year. The premise is simple: play some audio in your DAW, let Meaw Chain analyse it, enter some text prompt directions, and within a few seconds you’re furnished with a full plugin chain. This is a nuts-and-bolts application of AI that, at least for some, will be far more welcome than stem or full-song generators.
The plugin is based on the custom-made, in-house AI model that’s used on Safari’s Meaw Assist, with a stated commitment to never train its AI on customers’ audio. Meaw Chain supports a growing list of third-party plugins, and the ability to set individual parameters within those third-party plugins, which opens up some genuinely new workflows for bedroom producers.
Our review noted a number of drawbacks in this initial release, but luckily ethics wasn’t one of them. This innovative plugin chain builder is definitely one to keep an eye on.
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