Audio Labs

What Audio Labs does

AudioLabs (International Audio Laboratories Erlangen) is a joint research institution of Fraunhofer IIS and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), founded in 2008 and operating from Erlangen, Germany, with approximately 50 employees across five professorship positions. The institution conducts cutting-edge research in audio and multimedia signal processing, with particular emphasis on Music Information Retrieval (MIR), computational musicology, and AI-driven audio analysis. Its technical portfolio spans differentiable fundamental frequency estimators (dYIN, dSWIPE), differentiable dynamic time warping (dDTW), real-time beat tracking, hierarchical instrument activity detection, cross-version audio representation learning, and generative music synthesis. Outputs are released as open-source Python toolboxes (Sync Toolbox, libsoni, libf0), curated annotated datasets (ChoraleBricks, RWC Revisited, Erkomaishvili Georgian vocal music corpus), and web-based research demonstrators (GVM Player).

AudioLabs serves the global academic research community in MIR, audio signal processing, machine learning, and digital humanities. It does not operate a commercial go-to-market; instead, the institution's primary distribution channels are open-source releases on GitHub and Zenodo, peer-reviewed publications in top venues (IEEE/ACM TASLP, ISMIR, ICASSP, Interspeech, DAFx, IWAENC), and conference hosting (including IS2 2024). Its revenue model is grant-driven: the dominant funding stream is the German Research Foundation (DFG), anchored by a 1.25M EUR five-year Reinhart Koselleck Programme grant (2023-2029) for the LEARN project, supplemented by additional DFG-funded projects (e.g., GVM with University of Potsdam) and institutional support from Fraunhofer IIS and FAU. The institution is structured as a public law entity within FAU, with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Herre serving as legal representative and Prof. Dr. Meinard Müller leading the LEARN project as principal investigator.

Name

Audio Labs

Legal name

International Audio Laboratories Erlangen (AudioLabs)

Website

https://audiolabs-erlangen.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

AudioLabs is a joint Fraunhofer IIS and FAU research institution in Erlangen, Germany, conducting AI-driven audio and music information retrieval research, releasing open-source toolboxes and datasets to the global academic community under DFG grant funding.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Audio Signal Processing Research

NAICS

Sound Recording Studios (51224), Sound Recording Studios (512240), Other Sound Recording Industries (512290)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Music Creation & Assistive Tools (Generation, Separation, Mastering) (MPAIAIAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Audio Editing, Restoration & Mastering Software (MPAIAIAH), Sample Libraries, Loops & Sound Content Platforms (MPAIAIAF), Audio & Speech Analytics (call analytics, QA, insights) (HDAAAFAH)

Keywords

• Audio signal processing
• Music information retrieval
• Computational musicology
• Audio coding research
• Multimedia signal analysis

Headquarters

HQ city

Erlangen

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Research Funding (DFG): Primary revenue from German Research Foundation (DFG) grants including the Reinhart Koselleck Programme. Five-year grant of 1.25 Million Euros for the LEARN project. Multiple other DFG-funded research projects.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

AudioLabs is a joint research institution that conducts cutting-edge research in audio and multimedia signal processing, particularly Music Information Retrieval (MIR). It develops and publicly releases open-source software toolboxes (such as Sync Toolbox, libsoni, and F0 Toolbox) and annotated research datasets (such as ChoraleBricks, RWC resources, and the Erkomaishvili corpus) to enable reproducible research in audio analysis, music synchronization, beat tracking, transcription, and synthesis for the global academic research community.

Product overview

AudioLabs is a joint research institution of Fraunhofer IIS and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg that conducts cutting-edge research in audio and multimedia technologies, particularly Music Information Retrieval (MIR). Rather than commercial products, AudioLabs develops and publicly releases open-source software toolboxes (Sync Toolbox, libsoni, F0 Toolbox) and annotated research datasets (ChoraleBricks, GVM datasets, RWC resources) for the scientific community. These tools enable automated music analysis, synchronization, transcription, and synthesis research. The institution also maintains web-based demonstrators and interactive interfaces for exploring computational musicology research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sync Toolbox Python package for efficient, robust, and accurate music synchronization across different recordings, versions, and audio-to-score alignment. Distributed to the academic research community for MIR applications.
• libsoni Python toolbox for sonifying music annotations and feature representations, allowing researchers to convert symbolic or numeric data into audible sound for MIR analysis and exploration of musical features.
• F0 Toolbox (libf0) Python toolbox for fundamental frequency (F0) estimation and analysis in music signals, including differentiable variants (dYIN, dSWIPE) for integration with deep learning pipelines. Targets MIR researchers working on pitch estimation.
• ChoraleBricks Dataset A modular multitrack dataset for wind music research, including annotated recordings of wind quartets and choral music for MIR research purposes. Released openly for the academic community.
• RWC Music Database Resources Open release and annotation resources for the RWC Music Database, a comprehensive commercial music database made available for MIR research with aligned annotations.
• GVM Player Web-based interface for exploring traditional Georgian vocal music recordings, combining video, multitrack audio, F0 trajectories, and pseudo score visualization for computational ethnomusicology research.
• Erkomaishvili Dataset Curated corpus of traditional Georgian vocal music (recordings from 1966 by Artem Erkomaishvili) with F0 annotations, score-following functionality, and web-based exploration interface for computational musicology research.
• Piano Stems Models Deep-learning models optimized to extract piano stems (audio source separation) with improved perceptual clarity across genres including pop and electronic music, validated on piano concertos without prior training on classical music data.

Quantifiable outcome

• Five-year DFG Reinhart Koselleck Programme funding of 1.25 Million Euros
• +1 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered strategic and core.

• University of PotsdamstrategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Collaborative research partnership on the GVM (Computational Analysis of Traditional Georgian Vocal Music) project. Principal investigators include Prof. Dr. Frank Scherbaum from University of Potsdam and Prof. Dr. Meinard Müller from AudioLabs. Funded by DFG.
• Fraunhofer IIScoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010Core institutional partnership. Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is the worldwide leading institution in audio coding and audio signal processing. AudioLabs operates on the premises of Fraunhofer IIS, extending the ongoing projects of its audio and multimedia division.
• Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010Core institutional partnership. AudioLabs nurtures the leading position of FAU in research and teaching. Joint institution combining university academic excellence with Fraunhofer's industrial research capabilities.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Centre for Digital Music (C4DM), Queen Mary University of London: UK academic research group conducting MIR, audio analysis, and music AI research with strong open-source contributions. Directly comparable in research domains, publication footprint, and dataset/toolbox releases.
• Spatial Audio Research Group, Aalto University: Aalto's acoustics and signal processing group conducts research in spatial audio, room acoustics, and audio coding that overlaps with AudioLabs' perceptual spatial audio research area.
• Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford: Stanford's research center for music and acoustics pursuing audio signal processing, MIR, and music AI. Comparable in research scope and talent caliber though with a different funding model (private US university).
• IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique): Paris-based joint research institution focused on music and sound research, combining academic and industrial partners. Highly comparable in structure (joint institution model), research scope (audio analysis, spatial audio, sound synthesis), and open-source tooling tradition.
• Music Technology Group (MTG), Universitat Pompeu Fabra: A leading academic MTG at UPF Barcelona conducting comparable research in music information retrieval, audio signal processing, and computational musicology. Directly comparable in mission, output type (open-source toolboxes, datasets), and publication venues.

Emerging players

• Google Magenta: Google's research project exploring AI-driven music and art generation, publishing open-source tools and models. Comparable in AI music generation and MIR-adjacent research, though with vastly greater compute and data resources.
• Sony Computer Science Laboratories (CSL) Paris: Industrial research lab conducting MIR, music AI, and creative sound research with open publications and tool releases. Comparable in research focus and academic-style output, though privately funded by Sony.

Broad incumbents

• Fraunhofer IDMT (Institute for Digital Media Technology): Sibling Fraunhofer institute focused on audio and media technologies, including listening habits and signal processing. Comparable in organizational structure (Fraunhofer family) and applied audio AI focus, though with a stronger commercial orientation.
• Dolby Research: Industrial research arm of Dolby conducting audio coding, spatial audio, and perceptual audio research. Comparable in audio coding and signal processing research, though with proprietary/commercial orientation rather than academic open-source model.
• Spotify Research: Spotify's research division publishing in MIR, music recommendation, and audio AI. Comparable in MIR research topics but operates at vastly larger commercial scale and with proprietary data assets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/international-audio-laboratories-erlangen

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Audio Labs