ArtyShield is building the trust layer for music in the AI era—combining protective audio signals, detection algorithms, and traceability to safeguard creators' rights and enable fair use in an AI-driven world.
Today, generative AI can replicate music styles, vocals, and instrumentals at scale—often without the creator’s consent. Musicians, labels, and rights holders lack effective tools to protect their works from being scraped, cloned, or remixed by AI models. Existing copyright frameworks are slow, reactive, and ill-equipped for invisible mass ingestion of creative content in AI training.
ArtyShield provides a proactive solution: We embed imperceptible protective signals and traceable watermarks into audio files, effectively poisoning unauthorized AI training pipelines while remaining inaudible to human listeners. These signals degrade model performance when protected content is ingested, deterring misuse, and enable traceability for attribution and legal evidence.
Our platform also integrates high-accuracy AI-music detection APIs to help creators, platforms, and legal entities identify AI-generated or manipulated tracks. By combining protection, detection, and traceability, ArtyShield empowers artists to retain control over how their work interacts with AI models.
We are building the trust and accountability layer for music in the AI era, supporting individual creators, labels, distributors, and legal organizations. Aligned with growing global momentum around copyright protection in generative AI, ArtyShield offers both technical enforcement and legal evidence infrastructure—empowering creators to protect their work, assert ownership, and secure fair value.
Founding Team
ArtyShield’s founding team blends cutting-edge AI security expertise with deep music-industry experience, uniquely positioned to build trusted infrastructure for protecting music in the AI era.
- Jian (Jack) Liu, PhD – CEO & Co-founder
Associate Professor at the University of Georgia and director of the MoSIS Lab. Leads research in trustworthy AI and audio protection; drives company vision, strategy, partnerships, and fundraising. - Syed Irfan Ali Meerza – CTO
Machine learning specialist leading the core protection and detection technology stack. - Pete Kirtley – Chief Creative Officer
Award-winning songwriter and producer with 25+ years of industry experience, shaping product vision around real creator needs. - Yi Chen Liu
Drives AI-music detection and provenance R&D. - David Barbe – Advisor
Respected music business leader providing industry strategy and adoption guidance.
Together, the team combines technical innovation, creator insight, and market access to secure and scale the future of music protection.
ArtyShield’s go-to-market strategy targets high-impact early adopters in the music ecosystem—independent creators, small labels, distributors, and legal/rights organizations—who face the greatest risk from unauthorized AI use and are motivated to protect their catalogs.
Initial Rollout & Strategy
- Bottom-Up Adoption
Self-serve web platform and API for independent artists and small labels: one-click protection and AI verification to build user base, trust, and data for improvement. - Strategic Partnerships
Integrations with music distributors, streaming platforms, DAWs, and creative services to embed protection upstream in workflows, ensuring creators are safeguarded before public release. - Legal & Rights Focus
Early discussions with legal service providers and rights organizations to position traceable watermarking as evidentiary infrastructure for copyright disputes.
Long-term, ArtyShield serves as a trust layer for regulatory compliance as governments and industry adapt to generative AI. Marketing combines targeted creator outreach, API partnerships, and incentives (discounted credits, co-branding). We seek partnerships with distribution platforms, creative groups, and legal/IP entities to accelerate adoption and establish ArtyShield as the de facto standard.
ArtyShield’s revenue model scales with creator adoption and platform integrations, creating short-term cash flow and long-term high-margin recurring streams.
Revenue Streams
- Freemium + Usage-Based for Creators
Limited free protections/verifications; paid “ArtyCoins” credits for high-volume, batch processing, and advanced features. Subscription tiers (Free, Pro, Enterprise) for recurring revenue. - B2B Platform Licensing
API licensing, volume-based pricing, and white-label integrations for distributors, streaming services, DAWs, and legal/IP services—embedding protection upstream for large-scale adoption. - Future Blockchain Traceability
Transaction fees, licensing, and compliance services as AI content regulation matures and royalty enforcement grows.
This dual strategy evolves from creator-focused SaaS to infrastructure-level B2B licensing, positioning ArtyShield as the trusted standard for AI-era music protection.
Investment Opportunity
ArtyShield is seeking $1.5 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate transition from validated prototype to scalable commercial platform protecting music in the AI era.
Funding priorities:
| Priority | Allocation | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Product Hardening & Infrastructure | 40% | Scale protection/detection stack for high-throughput, adversarial resilience, and integrations with DAWs/streaming platforms. |
| Go-to-Market & Partnerships | 25% | Launch creator/label campaigns and build integrations with distributors, platforms, and legal partners. |
| Team Expansion | 20% | Grow engineering, product, and business development to speed development and market reach. |
| Regulatory & IP Readiness | 15% | Strengthen blockchain traceability, legal positioning, and IP portfolio for evolving AI regulations. |
This investment will enable alpha-to-public launch, secure early partnerships, and position ArtyShield as the standard against unauthorized AI use in music. We welcome strategic investors/partners with industry access, distribution, or legal/IP expertise.
ArtyShield is at the early product development stage with a functioning core technology prototype and ongoing refinements for commercial deployment.
Key achievements:
- Audio Protection Algorithms
Imperceptible perturbations injected into music files to block unauthorized AI training; validated in experiments to significantly degrade state-of-the-art music generation models. - AI-Music Detection Pipeline
High-accuracy system (97%+ balanced accuracy across 200K tracks) distinguishing AI-generated vs. human compositions in real-world conditions. - Prototype Platform
Web interface and API for uploading, protecting, and verifying audio; backend infrastructure in place, with payment/user management integration underway.
Designed for embeddability (future DAW/streaming plug-ins). Current focus: hardening for production scalability, robustness against model adaptation, and blockchain-based traceability for legal evidence. Proven in lab settings and entering alpha productization; next milestones include creator pilots, platform integrations, and expanded adversarial testing.
We are currently in the early stages and have not yet received outside funding.
