Apple has acquired assets and some employees of Samplab, the Swiss startup that developed AI-based audio editing tools. The deal dates to June 17, 2026, and became public only now, through a notice in the European Commission's register of acquisitions.
Based in Zurich and founded in 2020, the company offered a desktop app and plugins that converted audio to MIDI, detected and edited chords, separated a song into its component stems, and edited individual notes in polyphonic audio without changing the timbre of the original. Its tagline was "music production for the age of AI".
The most notable feature was moving a single note inside an already recorded chord, much as one would with MIDI. Until now, that kind of intervention required working on the full recording.
What could change in Logic Pro
Apple has not said which products will use the technology. Logic Pro already includes tools such as Stem Splitter and Chord ID, which handle stem separation and chord recognition, so polyphonic note editing would be the real novelty. GarageBand is also a plausible candidate.
The EU register does not disclose the value of the deal. Samplab shut down on September 17, 2026, and samplab.com now redirects to apple.com.
Apple's role under the Digital Markets Act
As a gatekeeper in the European Union, Apple must notify the Commission of deals involving core platform services, digital services and data collection. That is how the acquisition emerged months after it was made.
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