Audoo CEO Ryan Edwards says its Audio Meter now flags AI-generated tracks played in bars, gyms and shops

Audoo’s Audio Meter already listens to the music in bars, gyms and shops in more than 15 countries. Now its CEO says it can tell which of those tracks were made by AI.

Ryan Edwards, Audoo’s founder and CEO, said it in a Pulse 2.0 interview published October 12, 2026. Audoo’s technology “can identify AI-generated tracks played in public venues, so PROs can separate human and synthetic music in their reporting instead of paying out blind.”

PROs are collecting societies like PRS in the UK or GEMA in Germany. They take the licence fee a venue pays to play music and split it between the songwriters and artists whose music was played.

How Audoo’s Audio Meter logs the music played in venues

The Audio Meter plugs into a wall socket and recognises the music playing in the room in real time. It doesn’t play music, and Audoo told MusicTech in 2023 that it captures no non-music audio such as private conversations.

The data goes to Audoo’s platform and on to the collecting society. Without that data, royalties from venues have long been split using radio airplay, surveys and streaming patterns, according to the Music Venue Trust.

The music recognition has real partners behind it:

• APRA in Australia was Audoo’s first commercial rollout, followed by New Zealand, Edwards says.
• PRS for Music and PPL piloted the Audio Meter in UK cafés, bars and shops from 2023.
• GEMA used Audio Meters in hundreds of venues for its Music Impact Study in 2025, recognising over 130,000 tracks.
• SABAM in Belgium switched its DJ reporting to Audoo in April 2026.
• The Music Venue Trust is putting Audio Meters into 120 UK grassroots venues to check whether PRS payouts match what’s played.

Can Audoo’s Audio Meter really detect AI-generated music?

Edwards says yes. “Our tech can now even identify AI-generated tracks, making sure that the distinction between human-made and AI is visible in the data,” he told Pulse 2.0.

He calls AI the most pressing challenge in music right now, because AI tracks are “diluting the wider royalty pool for human artists.” AI music is already reaching venues, too: some cafés swap licensed music for AI playlists to skip their licence fees.

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We need infrastructure that can identify AI tracks in the real world, so royalties reach human artists, and clearer rules on AI training data to protect artists' copyright.

What’s missing is the proof. Audoo hasn’t said how it spots an AI track, how often it gets it right, or which collecting societies use the flag.

I looked for a second source and couldn’t find one: no press release, no statement from a partner society, and nothing on Audoo’s own FAQ page. The 99.1% figure is for recognising songs, not for spotting AI.

Streaming services have already published their own AI rules. TIDAL stopped paying royalties on fully AI-generated tracks from July 15, 2026, and Deezer is adding a toggle that hides fully AI songs from search.

Edwards says the US is Audoo’s next big focus, because it’s the largest music market and its PROs pay out billions of dollars a year. If you’re new to how that money moves, start with what music royalties are.