Frequently Asked Questions

No. AIAPS does not modify your audio at all. The plugin exports a bit-perfect copy. The audio samples are identical to your master. Protection is derived from the recording (a perceptual fingerprint) and stored in the registry, with an AIAPS ID written only to the file's metadata.

No. The AIAPS Plugin operates locally on your machine. All analysis is performed on-device. The only data transmitted externally is the fingerprint and metadata required for registry registration.

Yes. The perceptual fingerprint survives lossy compression including MP3, AAC, and OGG, and serves as the durable identifier across all formats.

The NO_AI_TRAINING policy code indicates that this recording is designated as not authorized for AI training, dataset ingestion, voice cloning, style modeling, or synthetic generation without permission from the rights holder.

The AIAPS ID and an AIAPS-PROTECTED notice are written into the file's metadata: the WAV INFO chunk or AIFF COMT chunk. The audio samples themselves are left untouched, so the export is a bit-perfect copy of your master.

AIAPS v1.2 applies to finished music recordings and exported stereo masters. The plugin supports WAV, FLAC, and AIFF input formats. Fingerprint-based verification also works with MP3, AAC, and OGG. Additional format support may be added in future versions.

An AIAPS ID is a human-readable identifier assigned by the AIAPS registry in the format AIAPS-YYYY-NNNNNN, where YYYY is the registration year and NNNNNN is a zero-padded sequence number.

A tool may claim AIAPS v1.2 compatibility only if it generates an AIAPS-compliant fingerprint, registers the recording in the AIAPS registry, writes the required metadata notice, exports a bit-perfect copy of the audio, supports the AIAPS verification workflow, and preserves required protocol fields and policy information. A tool that only writes metadata notices, or only fingerprints audio without registering it, is not fully AIAPS-compliant. Supporting the optional Creation Declaration is not required for compliance.

AIAPS protection is performed using the AIAPS Plugin. The plugin fingerprints your recording, registers it in the AIAPS registry, and writes an AIAPS ID into the file's metadata, exporting a bit-perfect copy with the audio untouched. It is available as a standalone macOS app, AU plugin, and VST3 plugin.

No. AIAPS creates a public, verifiable record of the rights holder's stated terms: that a recording is not authorized for AI training. It establishes the declaration that platforms, AI systems, and legal frameworks can reference. Its effectiveness depends on adoption by those systems.

A Creation Declaration is an optional attestation, introduced in AIAPS v1.2, that a recording was created without generative AI: no AI-generated composition, lyrics, vocals, instrumentation, or stems synthesized from prompts. Assistive tools do not disqualify a recording: pitch correction, editing, AI-assisted mixing and mastering, stem separation of your own recordings, and restoration all qualify, as do virtual instruments, drum machines, arpeggiators, and DAW drummer features (such as Logic's Drummer) where you select, arrange, and edit the output. The declaration is made by the rights holder, timestamped, bound to the recording's fingerprint, and shown on the certificate as declared by the rights holder. AIAPS records the declaration; it does not verify creative process. A declaration shown to be knowingly false may be publicly revoked.

No. Virtual instruments, drum machines, arpeggiators, loop libraries, and pattern-based performance tools such as Logic's Drummer are assistive, not generative, when you select, arrange, and edit the output. A typical example: programming drums with a DAW drummer feature, converting to MIDI, and editing the part is human-made under the standard. The line the specification draws (Section 10.2) is prompt-driven synthesis: a generative AI system that produces composition, performances, or audio from prompts using models trained on recorded music. Writing a song with such a system disqualifies the declaration; playing, sequencing, or arranging with instruments and studio tools does not.

No. AIAPS is an attestation registry, not a detection system. The declaration is a public, timestamped statement by the rights holder, made under the definition in Section 10 of the specification. Its strength comes from accountability: the declaration is bound to a specific fingerprint, permanently on record, and publicly marked as revoked if shown to be false. Audio AI detection is unreliable and is explicitly out of scope for the standard.