BandLab Acquires Aiode: What It Means for Aiode Users
The BandLab Aiode deal of 15 July 2026: what BandLab said about Aiode's DAW plans, what changes for Aiode users, and a free AI DAW that plays every part.
BandLab Technologies announced on 15 July 2026 that it had acquired Aiode, a beta AI music studio built on models of real session musicians. Aiode stays a standalone product, and its native recording and "additional DAW functionality" are still only planned. Veena is already the whole studio: an AI DAW with a personal music producer, free in your browser.
Veena is an AI DAW with a personal music producer built in. Describe the song you want and CoProducer builds it with you — beats, chords, melody, arrangement and mix — as real tracks you can edit, mix and export. Free, in your browser.
The facts below come from BandLab Technologies' announcement (15 July 2026) and from Aiode's own pricing, home and desktop-app pages, read on 23 September 2026.
The BandLab Aiode deal in brief
- Who bought what. BandLab Technologies, "the music technology company behind BandLab, Cakewalk, ReverbNation, and Airbit", bought Aiode, "an AI-powered digital music studio that lets creators make music with fully-licensed audio-to-audio models developed with professional session musicians and producers."
- Why, in BandLab's words. It gives the group "a third music-making platform alongside BandLab and Cakewalk, with Aiode centering around modern AI-powered workflows."
- The price. Not disclosed in the announcement.
- Who runs it. Co-founders Idan Dobrecki and Blue Dobrecky stay on as CEO and COO.
The two sentences Aiode users should read
Most of the release is praise. Two lines decide what happens to your projects:
"Aiode will continue as a standalone product, with uninterrupted service for existing users."
"Native audio recording and additional DAW functionality are planned for future versions of Aiode, with timing and further details to be announced."
The first means nothing breaks: same app, same founders, and "current musician partnerships and licensing agreements will remain in place." The second is the admission: the studio BandLab bought could not record your voice or your guitar, and the rest of its DAW has no date. Aiode's own pricing, home and desktop-app pages, read on 23 September 2026, still offer no way to record.
How Aiode works today
Aiode's pricing page still opens its FAQ with "Currently in beta". You start from scratch or import a track, then "choose a Musician, Layer, or Sample Remaker, and start stretching your chosen region for each model to build your arrangement." Each model returns audio takes you can regenerate.
| Aiode plan | Price (Aiode, September 2026) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10 Muse tokens, 2 musician tracks, 1 audio track, "2 Mix or Region exports a month", no commercial licence |
| Basic | $9.99 a month, shown against $15 | 100 Muse tokens, 4 musicians at a time, 4 audio tracks, WAV, MP3 and stem downloads, commercial use |
| Pro | $19.99 a month, shown against $30 | 300 Muse tokens, 8 musician tracks, 8 audio tracks, commercial use |
The last step of Aiode's own five-step pitch sends you somewhere else: "Export high-quality 24-bit stereo files or drag & drop them directly into your DAW of choice for further editing, mixing and mastering." Aiode's download page marks the desktop version built for that hand-off "Relaunching Soon".
What the deal means for you
If you make music in Aiode:
- Nothing changes this week. Service continues, the founders stay and the musician licences stay.
- Recording is still missing. Until the "planned" native recording ships, the vocal or guitar take you want the models to follow is recorded in another app and uploaded.
- The finish still happens elsewhere. By Aiode's own description, mixing and mastering happen in "your DAW of choice".
- Free stays a taster. Two exports a month, one audio track, no commercial licence.
If you make music in BandLab: the group now runs three separate places to make music, BandLab's browser Studio, Cakewalk's desktop DAWs and Aiode, and the announcement joins none of them together. BandLab's own free Studio still caps a project at 16 tracks and 15 minutes (BandLab's help centre, September 2026), and its AI Smart Tools come with the paid Membership, at $14.99 a month or $99 for the first year (BandLab's pricing page, September 2026).
Veena: a producer who plays every part, in a finished studio
Aiode rents you a session musician per track and leaves the song to you. In Veena, CoProducer, your personal music producer, plays every part and builds the song around them, inside a full DAW, free in your browser. It is the AI session musician, the AI drummer and the engineer in one.
Start blank, or start from your own take. Type the song you hear, or record your voice or guitar from your mic right in the browser, with a count-in and a live waveform. CoProducer measures the take's tempo and where your phrases land, and every new part follows it.
Direct the band in plain words. "Make the drums half-time." "Swap the piano for a Rhodes." "Add a bridge." Each new part arrives as 3 options and you pick; nothing that depends on a part is written until you do. The parts listen to each other, too: a bass that has to lock to the kick reads the drums' actual notes before it is written.
Every part stays editable. Drums land in the Beat Maker step sequencer and melodic parts as MIDI in the piano roll, on 61 instrument presets, 7 drum kits or your own VST3 and AU plug-ins through Veena Bridge.
Mix and export where you made it. CoProducer sets levels, pan and effects. Export 24-bit/48 kHz WAV, MP3, MIDI or every track as stems, with no cap and no watermark, on every plan.
It gets people to a song fast: in Veena's own data, 3 in 4 new users (75.7%) whose first request asks for a new song get a finished first result on day one.
Veena vs Aiode (September 2026)
| Veena | Aiode | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it stands | A full AI DAW, live in your browser | "Currently in beta"; recording and more DAW features "planned" |
| Price to start | Free, with a daily CoProducer allowance | Free: 10 Muse tokens, 2 musician tracks, 1 audio track |
| Exports on the free plan | No cap: WAV, MP3, MIDI and stems, no watermark | "2 Mix or Region exports a month" |
| Commercial use on the free plan | Yes, on every plan, and you own the Output | "without a commercial license" |
| Recording your own part | Record from your mic in the browser | Native recording "planned for future versions" |
| Building the arrangement | CoProducer plans the sections and writes every part from a description | You stretch a region for each musician model |
| Finishing the song | Mix, master and export in the same studio | Take the stems to "your DAW of choice" to mix and master |
BandLab bought a set of session-musician models and a studio whose recording and further DAW features it says are still to come. Veena is that studio today, with the producer inside it, free in your browser. Paste the prompt below into CoProducer and hear the band play. Weighing other tools? Start with Veena's alternatives guides.
Related reading: Aiode alternative · Veena vs BandLab · Is BandLab free?
Try this in Veena
Make a 104 BPM funk-rock song in A minor played like a live session band: a drummer with ghost notes on the snare, a punchy bass locked to the kick, a clean rhythm guitar playing sixteenth-note chops, and a Rhodes answering in the gaps. Intro 4 bars, verse 16, chorus 16, breakdown 8, final chorus 16.
Frequently asked questions
Did BandLab buy Aiode?
Yes. BandLab Technologies, the group behind BandLab, Cakewalk, ReverbNation and Airbit, announced the acquisition of Aiode on 15 July 2026, without disclosing a price. Aiode continues as a standalone product led by its co-founders. Veena already puts the producer and the studio in one place: describe a song and CoProducer builds it as real tracks, free in your browser.
Is Aiode shutting down after the BandLab deal?
No. BandLab's announcement says Aiode "will continue as a standalone product, with uninterrupted service for existing users", and its musician partnerships and licensing agreements stay in place. The gap it names is native audio recording, which BandLab calls planned, with timing to be announced. Veena records your voice or instrument in the browser today, and CoProducer builds the song around it.
Will Aiode become part of BandLab Studio?
BandLab's release announces no merger with its own Studio. It calls Aiode a third music-making platform alongside BandLab and Cakewalk, continuing as a standalone product, and its only roadmap line is that native recording and "additional DAW functionality" are planned. Veena already puts an AI producer inside a full DAW, free in your browser, with nothing to install.
Is Aiode free?
Aiode has a free plan with 10 Muse tokens, 2 musician tracks, 1 audio track and 2 mix or region exports a month, without a commercial licence, according to its pricing page in September 2026. Its paid plans cost $9.99 and $19.99 a month. Veena is free with no cap on exports, no watermark, and commercial use on every plan.
What is the difference between Aiode and Veena?
Aiode gives you models of session musicians that you place region by region, then tells you to take the stems to your DAW of choice to mix and master. Veena is the DAW. CoProducer, your personal music producer, plans the song, plays every part as editable tracks, mixes it and exports it, free in your browser.
Meet your personal music producer
Free, in your browser. Describe the song you want and CoProducer builds it with you.
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