BeatStars' new feature tracks credits and splits as songs are made. With shonky metadata and unagreed splits an enduring problem for the music industry, attention has turned in recent times to recording information from the earliest parts of the songwriting and recording processes. The latest example of that comes from BeatStars with its new 'Projects' feature, described as "a workspace where the files, the collaborators, and the agreements behind a song live in one place". So, this is partly about bringing together all the files: audio, DAW sessions, MIDI, artwork and contracts, including a record of who uploaded each one that "can't be edited or deleted, including by the project's owner". However, BeatStars is also building in splits to this. "Composition and master splits sit on the track from day one," it explained. "Each collaborator accepts their share from their own account, and every acceptance is timestamped. If a split changes, the earlier version stays visible." It's a sensible approach to a very real challenge. "Software has version control. Finance has audit trails. Science has citations. Music has a shared drive nobody can find," said CEO Abe Batshon. "For as long as music has been made digitally, the industry has trusted that the people in the room would remember who did what. Most of the time, they don't. We built Projects so the record of how a song got made ships with the song."

Splice acquires Kits AI, BeatStars buys Lemonaide AI as artificial intelligence dealmaking streak continues. Splice acquires Kits AI, BeatStars buys Lemonaide AI as artificial intelligence dealmaking streak continues dylan smith january 21, 2026. New day, new AI music company acquisitions: Splice has scooped up Kits AI, and 30 months after partnering with Lemonaide AI, BeatStars has purchased the melody generator outright. Eyeing "ethical AI" expansions, both buyers disclosed the deals (but not the financials thereof) in releases that were emailed to DMN. Beginning with Splice, the self-described "leading music creation platform" emphasized the "fully licensed" nature of the data behind Kits AI's offerings. Machine-powered soundalike vocals (including custom digital voices) are the most widely known of those offerings. However, Kits also deals in AI instruments, mastering, stem separation, text-to-speech tools, and much more, according to its website. Now, all these commercially cleared features are presumably set to integrate into Splice, which, with its own collection of royalty-free samples and (as of 2025's final quarter) virtual instruments, has been spearheading AI expansions for a while. Last year, this focus fueled the reportedly $50 million buyout of Spitfire Audio and, to close out 2025, a Universal Music licensing and content collaboration pact. "It was important to us to find a team that shared Splice's creator-first values, and that was equally committed to the responsible development of AI, including artist compensation," Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava said of the Kits AI play. "Kits AI's ML research has delivered multiple frontier models, including zero-shot voice cloning (IVC) and generative vocals (KGV1.0), both trained on fully-licensed data. I'm excited to work with this visionary team to build new ways for our customers to explore ideas, shape melodies, and experiment with sound," the former Adobe exec concluded. As for BeatStars, the increasingly ai-geared music marketplace inked an "ethically sourced" partnership agreement with Lemonaide back in july 2023. To date, the companies have coordinated on a number of consent-based and attribution-focused producer models, including for Lex Luger, Kato on the Track, and Mantra, to name a few. Behind the scenes, the tie-up has evidently proven successful. With today's deal - the buyer declined to divulge price-tag particulars - "the Lemonaide team will fully join BeatStars." This includes the addition of Lemonaide co-founders Michael Jacob (as CTO) and Anirudh Mani (chief science officer). "With BeatStars," Mani added, "we have the opportunity to push the frontier of AI in an ethical way. Our rights-first approach to generative AI proves innovation and ownership can move forward together." All told, 2026 has already delivered a fairly long list of AI funding rounds, partnerships, purchases, and product launches - not to mention a continued shift towards opt-in models. On the other hand, AI is also at the center of additional training-related lawsuits, responsible for the ongoing avalanche of slop on DSPs, and to blame for falsely labeling a musician a sex offender.