Our partnership ensures sound effects are properly licensed for the next generation of audio tools.
We’ve partnered with Musical AI – a rights management system that enables rightsholders to securely share content with our AI / Machine Learning partners in a way that compensates rightsholders every time a sound is used.
We believe professionally recorded sound has an important role to play in shaping the next generation of creative tools, but it must be done in a way that respects and compensates creators. Below, you’ll find more information about how the partnership works, our approach to AI and generative tools, and how we’re protecting the value of human artistry through ethical licensing and fair compensation.
If you have any questions, we're happy to hear from you. You can contact us here.
FAQ: Table of Contents
How does this partnership fit into how Pro Sound Effects is navigating the AI future?
Is Pro Sound Effects currently licensing any of their sounds through Musical AI?
What is Musical AI?
Musical AI is a secure rights management platform that enables artists, labels, and sound companies like Pro Sound Effects to license content to AI companies with full control – ensuring every use of a licensed sample in generative AI is tracked and compensated. It’s Fairly Trained certified infrastructure, built as an ethical alternative to AI companies that engage in theft through data-scraping practices.
How does Musical AI work?
Sounds from the Pro Sound Effects library are uploaded to a secure system.
- Only AI companies we choose to partner with can access the content.
- The content is used strictly for training models, not for resale or public access.
- Everything is tracked. Every use is reported.
- Pro Sound Effects and our library partners are paid through our existing royalty system.
What protections are in place to prevent misuse or unauthorized redistribution of PSE content on Musical AI?
Protecting our sounds has always been a priority. Scraping is a risk and we work to get ahead of it through explicit end user license agreements, advocacy for ethical licensing, and, if necessary, legal action.
In the Musical AI platform, our sounds stay within a secure, access-controlled environment – AI companies train models inside that system but never receive the raw files. Every use is tracked, and rights holders retain control over how their content is accessed and used.
How does this partnership fit into how Pro Sound Effects is navigating the AI future?
Our roots in the sound community run deep, and we have been building the Pro Sound Effects library for decades in deep collaboration with the world’s best recordists.
We’ve licensed our library to a wide range of industries from the beginning – including media, broadcast, video games, post production, and technology companies working on tools like noise reduction, dialogue isolation, stem separation, and more.
Our library partners have trusted us to explore new revenue streams as they emerge – and data licensing for AI/ML is one of those opportunities.
We are open to working with AI companies that (1) empower human creativity through ethical, creative AI, and (2) are committed to legally licensing the datasets they train on. We're working together with our colleagues in the sound community to uphold the value of the work that sound artists contribute to our libraries. It will always be a priority to help our artists earn more income and fund future creative recording projects.
Our stance is simple: AI should not be built on stolen work. It should be built in partnership with the people who create the sounds that power storytelling and creativity. That means licensing, attribution, and fair compensation must be non-negotiable.
For more information, please take a moment to check out our blog post:
How PSE is Navigating the AI Future
Is Pro Sound Effects currently licensing any of their sounds through Musical AI?
As part of this initiative, Pro Sound Effects has partnered with Beatoven – a Fairly Trained-certified company that shares our commitment to fairly compensated and ethically licensed sound. Beatoven is focused on building new creative music tools for content creators and musicians using high-quality, fairly sourced audio, including sound effects. Musical AI will facilitate the licensing process for this partnership.
We’re excited to partner with Musical AI to help bring this collaboration to life and support new creative possibilities.
