[INTERVIEW] Korean startup targets 'legal AI music' via copyright tracking

Neutune CEO Lee Jong-pil says AI music attribution technology is ready to identify source recordings and measure their contributions, but rights-holder consent and licensing remain unresolved. He proposes opt-in or blanket licensing for AI-assisted music. Neutune’s Music DNA scans generated tracks for source material, while MixAudio provides attribution for AI remixes. Lee also envisions a K-pop remix market in which fans use artists’ work and share revenue.

Neutune was founded in 2020 by researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s Graduate School of Culture Technology.

Music DNA analyzes new music for material drawn from existing works, while MixAudio is an AI remix platform with attribution built in.

Neutune divides songs into instrument- and section-based blocks, such as bass, drums, intros and verses, to measure individual contributions.

The Korea Music Copyright Association introduced Korea’s first standards for registering AI-assisted songs in August but withdrew them 22 days later.

Lee said rights connected to a person’s voice and likeness are harder to track than copyright in the music itself and could be addressed around next year.

Published Oct 16, 2026 12:00 pm KST

More than half of the new tracks uploaded to French streaming service Deezer each day are now made by artificial intelligence (AI). The company said such uploads peaked in June at about 90,000 a day, up from roughly 10,000 in January 2025.

The record industry's response is shifting from the courtroom to the negotiating table. Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, which sued AI music generators Suno and Udio in 2024 alongside Sony Music, have since settled with Udio. Warner has also settled with Suno.

What the industry still lacks is a way to pay the people whose music feeds these systems.

Streaming runs on a simple formula, in which a song is played, counted and paid for, but nothing comparable exists for AI-generated songs that draw on existing ones. For now, platforms are simply keeping fully AI-generated tracks out of royalty payments.

These are not distant problems for Korea.

K-pop reaches much of its global audience through the same streaming services, and at home, AI-assisted tracks have recently climbed the charts on Melon and YouTube, even though major streaming platforms here do not ask distributors whether AI was used.

In August, the Korea Music Copyright Association, the country's largest songwriters' royalty collection body, introduced Korea's first standards for registering songs made with the help of AI, only to withdraw them 22 days later. There is still no concrete standard for how royalties from AI-assisted music should be collected and distributed.

Lee Jong-pil, CEO of artificial intelligence music tech company Neutune / Courtesy of Neutune

Lee Jong-pil, CEO of Seoul-based music tech startup Neutune, says the technology to close that gap is already here. When AI produces a new song, it is now possible to work out which recordings went into it — one source track might have lent its explosive energy, another its guitar tone and a third its drum pattern, taken from between the 30- and 50-second marks.

"In my view, the technology is already settled," Lee told The Korea Times in an interview at the company's office in Gangnam District, Seoul, Oct.8. "The slow part is getting consent from rights holders, and it can't help but be slow."

The obstacle, he said, resembles the industry's shift from CDs to digital downloads, when rights built around physical records had to be renegotiated with creators. AI use needs a similar opt-in or blanket licensing framework.

Founded in 2020 by researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology's Graduate School of Culture Technology, Neutune develops AI attribution technology, which identifies the original works behind AI-generated music and measures how much each contributed. Its products include Music DNA, a service that scans new music for material drawn from existing works, and MixAudio, an AI remix platform with attribution built in.

The interface of Music DNA, Neutune’s artificial intelligence music provenance analysis tool, which breaks a track into segments and matches each against a reference catalog to identify its sources / Courtesy of Neutune

Neutune's approach rests on breaking music into what it calls "blocks."

A song is split by instrument, such as bass and drums, and by section, such as the intro and verse, creating a grid of small units that can be pulled apart and recombined, much as video game soundtracks are assembled on the fly.

"It's like Lego," Lee said. "If you build a phone as one solid piece, it can only ever be that phone. With a Lego set, you can build a phone or something else entirely."

That level of detail matters for payment, because users no longer just "click a button" for a three-minute song, according to Lee. They generate a track, take it apart and rework individual parts.

“If all we can say about a newly generated song is that songs A, B and C were used in its making, accurate settlement isn't possible,” Lee said.

Licensing deals between labels and AI firms mostly cover whether a song was used to train a model or to make a remix, he noted. Checking whether a finished track copies existing works requires a separate monitoring system that scans new output against a vast music database, much as Shazam identifies songs. That is the market Music DNA targets.

The technology still has gaps. Copyright in the music itself is relatively easy to track, Lee said, but rights tied to a person, such as a singer's voice and likeness, are harder to protect and measure. He expects that area to be sorted out around next year.

One obstacle is that composers are still reluctant to admit using AI.

The reason, Lee said, is not AI itself but platforms like Suno, which record labels have sued over its training data.

“If [the platforms] were clean services that had resolved their copyright issues, there would be nothing to hide,” he said, likening it to using a cracked copy of Microsoft Word — something no one would proudly admit to.

"I don't think the issue is AI versus humans," Lee said. "It's legal AI versus illegal AI."

For the same reason, he sees requiring composers to declare their AI use as a stopgap.

Overseas, standards are being built so that music software automatically records how a work was generated, as is already common for images. Once that spreads to audio, he said, the information will simply be embedded in the file.

Members of K-pop girl group A2O LITE performs during A2O Entertainment’s WELCOME TO SOULITE From A2O SOUL A2O LITE, the agency's global debut show for its idol groups, at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 12. Yonhap

Lee believes Korea is well placed in AI music, since Korean consumers are among the world's most advanced when it comes to fandom and adopting AI.

Lee sees the same block-based logic shaping K-pop's next stage of growth.

The industry has grown by crafting every piece of content around its artists, an approach he said does not scale indefinitely. The next step, in his view, is a "remix market in which fans can use artists' work through a platform," sharing revenue or paying for it.

While many in the industry remain cautious about AI, Lee said some of K-pop's most prominent figures are already paying close attention.

"Whether it's for the K-pop industry or for us, I want what we're pursuing to grow here first," he said. "I just want to do well with K-pop."

Neutune首席执行官李钟弼表示，人工智能音乐归属技术已经能够识别原始录音并衡量其贡献，但版权所有者的同意和许可问题仍未解决。他提议对人工智能辅助音乐采用选择加入或一揽子许可模式。Neutune的Music DNA可以扫描生成的曲目以识别原始素材，而MixAudio则为人工智能混音作品提供归属信息。李钟弼还设想建立一个K-pop混音市场，让粉丝使用艺人的作品并分享收益。

Neutune 由韩国科学技术院文化技术研究生院的研究人员于 2020 年创立。

Music DNA 分析新音乐，寻找源自现有作品的素材，而 MixAudio 是一个内置署名功能的 AI 混音平台。

Neutune 将歌曲按乐器和段落划分成不同的部分，例如贝斯、鼓、前奏和主歌，以此来衡量每个人的贡献。

韩国音乐著作权协会于 8 月推出了韩国首个 AI 辅助歌曲注册标准，但 22 天后又撤回了这些标准。

李表示，与人的声音和肖像相关的权利比音乐本身的版权更难追踪，这可能需要到明年才能解决。

发布于2026年10月16日韩国时间下午12:00

法国流媒体服务平台Deezer每天上传的新歌中，超过一半是由人工智能（AI）生成的。该公司表示，此类上传量在6月份达到峰值，约为每天9万首，而2025年1月时约为每天1万首。

唱片业的应对策略正从法庭转向谈判桌。环球音乐集团和华纳音乐集团曾于2024年联合索尼音乐起诉人工智能音乐生成器Suno和Udio，但目前已与Udio达成和解。华纳也已与Suno达成和解。

目前音乐产业仍然缺乏一种向那些为这些系统提供音乐的人支付报酬的方法。

流媒体的运作模式很简单：歌曲播放、计数并付费，但对于基于现有歌曲创作的AI生成歌曲，却没有类似的机制。目前，各大平台都选择将完全由AI生成的歌曲排除在版税支付范围之外。

对韩国而言，这些并非遥远的问题。

K-pop 通过相同的流媒体服务触达其全球大部分受众，而在韩国国内，人工智能辅助的歌曲最近在 Melon 和 YouTube 的排行榜上攀升，尽管这里的主要流媒体平台不会询问发行商是否使用了人工智能。

今年8月，韩国最大的词曲作者版税征收机构——韩国音乐著作权协会推出了韩国首个人工智能辅助创作歌曲的注册标准，但仅仅22天后便撤回了该标准。目前，对于人工智能辅助创作音乐的版税如何征收和分配，仍然没有明确的标准。

人工智能音乐科技公司 Neutune 的首席执行官李钟弼 / 图片由 Neutune 提供

首尔音乐科技初创公司Neutune的首席执行官李钟弼表示，弥合这一差距的技术已经存在。当人工智能创作一首新歌时，现在可以确定歌曲中使用了哪些录音——一首歌可能贡献了其爆发性的能量，另一首歌可能贡献了其吉他音色，还有一首歌可能贡献了其鼓点节奏，这些节奏可能取自歌曲的30秒到50秒之间。

“在我看来，这项技术已经成熟了，”李在10月8日于首尔江南区公司办公室接受《韩国时报》采访时表示。“缓慢的部分在于获得版权所有者的同意，而这必然会比较慢。”

他表示，这一障碍类似于音乐行业从CD转向数字下载时的情况，当时围绕实体唱片建立的版权必须与创作者重新谈判。人工智能的使用也需要类似的自愿加入或一揽子许可框架。

Neutune由韩国科学技术院文化技术研究生院的研究人员于2020年创立，致力于开发人工智能归属技术，该技术能够识别人工智能生成的音乐背后的原创作品，并衡量每首作品的贡献。其产品包括Music DNA（一项扫描新音乐以查找源自现有作品的素材的服务）和MixAudio（一个内置归属功能的AI混音平台）。

Neutune 的人工智能音乐溯源分析工具 Music DNA 的界面，可将一首曲目分割成多个片段，并将每个片段与参考目录进行匹配，从而识别其来源 / 图片由 Neutune 提供

Neutune 的方法是基于将音乐分解成它所谓的“模块”。

一首歌按乐器（如贝斯和鼓）和段落（如引子和主歌）进行划分，形成一个由小单元组成的网格，这些小单元可以拆分和重新组合，就像电子游戏配乐是即时组装的一样。

“这就像乐高积木，”李说。“如果你用一个整体来搭建一部手机，它就只能是那部手机。而用乐高积木，你可以搭建一部手机，也可以搭建完全不同的东西。”

李表示，这种细节程度对支付至关重要，因为用户不再像以前那样“点击按钮”就能听一首三分钟的歌。他们会生成一首曲子，然后将其拆解，重新制作各个部分。

李说：“如果我们对一首新创作的歌曲只能说它使用了歌曲 A、B 和 C，那么就不可能进行准确的结算。”

他指出，唱片公司和人工智能公司之间的授权协议主要涵盖歌曲是否用于训练模型或制作混音。要检查一首成品歌曲是否抄袭现有作品，则需要一套独立的监控系统，该系统会将新作品与庞大的音乐数据库进行比对，就像 Shazam 识别歌曲一样。这正是 Music DNA 的目标市场。

这项技术仍存在一些不足。李表示，音乐本身的版权相对容易追踪，但与人相关的权利，例如歌手的声音和肖像权，则更难保护和衡量。他预计这方面的问题将在明年左右得到解决。

一个障碍是，作曲家们仍然不愿承认使用人工智能。

李表示，原因不在于人工智能本身，而在于像 Suno 这样的平台，唱片公司曾就其训练数据起诉过这些平台。

“如果（这些平台）是干净的服务，并且已经解决了版权问题，那就没有什么可隐瞒的了，”他说道，并将这种情况比作使用破解版的微软 Word——没有人会为此感到自豪。

李说：“我认为问题不在于人工智能与人类的对抗，而在于合法人工智能与非法人工智能的对抗。”

出于同样的原因，他认为要求作曲家声明他们使用人工智能的做法只是权宜之计。

在海外，相关标准正在制定中，旨在使音乐软件能够自动记录作品的创作过程，就像图像领域已经普遍采用这种做法一样。他表示，一旦这项技术推广到音频领域，相关信息将直接嵌入到文件中。

10月12日，韩国女子组合A2O LITE在京畿道高阳市KINTEX会展中心举行的A2O娱乐公司旗下偶像组合“WELCOME TO SOULITE From A2O SOUL A2O LITE”全球出道秀上表演。（韩联社）

李认为韩国在人工智能音乐领域处于有利地位，因为韩国消费者在粉丝文化和人工智能应用方面是世界上最先进的消费者之一。

Lee认为，同样的模块化逻辑正在塑造K-pop的下一个发展阶段。

这个行业的发展模式是围绕艺人打造每一篇内容，但他表示这种模式无法无限扩展。他认为，下一步应该是“混音市场”，粉丝可以通过平台使用艺人的作品，并可选择分享收益或付费购买。

尽管业内许多人对人工智能仍持谨慎态度，但李表示，一些韩国流行音乐界最杰出的人物已经开始密切关注人工智能的发展。

“无论是对韩国流行音乐产业还是对我们自己而言，我都希望我们所追求的事业首先在这里发展壮大，”他说。“我只想在韩国流行音乐领域取得成功。”