Clef
Clef lets labels and publishers set the terms for AI use of each song, review every request against them, and keep the approval, credits and payment evidence together. You run it in your own infrastructure.
A clef at the start of the staff tells a musician which notes to play. Clef puts your terms first and checks each AI request against them.
Your team knows the songs, the contracts and the people behind the music. Clef turns their preferences and your agreements into specific licensing terms, then checks each incoming request against them.
A studio asks in plain words. Sent through Clef’s API, the same request fills in every field your terms check.
Request for Paper Skies
Fictional catalog and request. The requester declares each field; each organization supplies its own reviewed authority evidence.
Policies separate AI operations, source assets, model environments, duration, retention, and safeguards. Try it on the studio’s request.
Read the tested policy schema ↗Your terms for Paper Skies
Choose which AI uses you will consider
Training, transformation, stem extraction, lyric use and synthetic voice are separate permissions. The studio needs transformation and stems.
Limit how much of the recording a model receives
Source and output duration are set independently, along with territory and term.
Decide how long the source may be kept
Input and embedding retention sit next to the model environment: private single tenant, shared commercial, or public and open weight.
Attach what an approval requires
Exact credit, backlinks, watermarks, similarity review, reporting and deletion attestation travel with the decision. Your production services apply the watermark and report the use.
Request from a studio
Paper Skies, Mara Vale. 30 s of instrumental stems for a 60 s study, United States, private model, source kept 7 days.
Matches your terms. Goes to your named reviewer.
These are your terms as the reference node hashes them.
{"maxSourceSeconds":30,"obligations":{"credit":true,"report":true,"watermark":false},"operations":{"lyric-use":false,"stem-extraction":true,"synthetic-voice":false,"training":false,"transformation":true},"retentionDays":7}
SHA-256 6207c54ed04ad9371174aad07f02117c5616813215fa1332c96e37b23714da98
Change any term and the edition gets a new number.
Download these termsFictional catalog and request. Your reviewer makes the decision.
The reference node signs permission grants and linked lifecycle records with Ed25519. The signature shows the record is intact. Each part of it has its own source.
Authority begins with separately reviewed evidence, and ownership stays tied to the rights and parties documented there. The receipt names the represented parties and the exact approved scope.
The MLC contributes musical-work references in a U.S. publishing context. Labels and publishers supply evidence of the rights and territories they administer. DDEX delivery and recipient acceptance are their own lifecycle events, and payment records reference transactions completed through external financial providers.
For the artist or songwriter: their agreed conditions and required credits are on the record, and they can review the approved use, publication and reported payments with their administrator.
Signed receipt
Paper Skies, Mara Vale. Fictional example.
The work
Permitted use
Obligations
Decided by
Signed with Ed25519. Linked to publication, payment and any later correction.
At the pinned source revision, the release suite passes 79 backend tests, 49 frontend tests, and a 30-step synthetic workflow verifier. The current evidence covers software behavior with synthetic data. Inspect the pinned source ↗
v0.1.0-alpha.1v0.1.0-alpha.1v0.1.0-alpha.1Tenant isolation, evidence states, named review, exact obligations, lifecycle linkage, tamper rejection and external-settlement arithmetic.
A completed commercial workflow, in the flagship pilot. Read the pilot criteria
For teams with their own engineers. You install Clef, configure catalog policies and integrations, and run it in your infrastructure.
The current release is free to self-host. Your organization manages hosting, updates and administration.
US$0 software fee
For teams that want it running in their infrastructure without building it themselves.
We agree the configuration, integrations, branding and handover with your team before work begins. Your organization owns the installation and takes over day-to-day administration. Pilot organizations receive 50% off Clef’s standard setup fee for the agreed scope. Your quote shows the standard fee and the pilot discount; hosting and ongoing services are priced separately.
50% off Clef’s setup fee for pilots
Request a setup quoteYour release includes its software license. Current terms and planned own-node license. Installing for other organizations? Partner program.
171 labels and publishers on our research shortlist, across 67 countries and markets.
Look up your organization. See the catalog work that caught our attention and a suggested starting point for AI licensing.
Search the directoryAn archive aisle of tape boxes and bound scores.
Name a work you administer and how you want Clef installed. The pilot application opens with both filled in, and measures clearance time, reporting completeness and progress toward a paid license.
Implementation business? Explore the partner program. Reviewing the protocol? Share your requirements.