What is AuthorMark? — BananaRat Studio FAQ

What is AuthorMark?

Plain English. A little technical where it matters. No marketing adjectives. Last reviewed: 2026-04-20.

What is AuthorMark, in one sentence?

AuthorMark is two independent signatures attached to every song you generate on BananaRat Studio, proving the audio came from this platform and naming us (the signer) — verifiable by anyone with a C2PA-aware tool or the AudioSeal detector.

Why does it exist?

Three reasons, stacked:

  1. Law. The EU AI Act Article 50 (effective August 2, 2026) requires AI-generated audio to carry machine-readable provenance. California SB 942 (same date) requires a similar disclosure. AuthorMark is how we comply.
  2. Honesty. You didn't hide that AI helped. Neither should your file. The C2PA manifest says "yes, AI was involved" — and credits you as the author.
  3. Evidence. If a dispute arises — copyright claim, PRO registration, sync license — the signed manifest is a documented, timestamped, tamper-evident record that this audio was generated by this platform at this time, and names you as the creator.

What are the two signatures, technically?

1. C2PA Content Credentials (visible).

A cryptographic manifest embedded in the MP3. Contains: authorship claim, platform identity, timestamp, and a CAWG Trainer-Data-Miner assertion that states "this content may not be used for AI training." Verifiable at contentcredentials.org/verify or any C2PA-aware application (Adobe, Content Authenticity Initiative members, major platforms adding support through 2026).

2. AudioSeal Neural Watermark (inaudible).

Meta's open-source neural watermark embedded in the audio itself. Survives format conversion, transcoding, and partial editing. Detectable with the AudioSeal detector. Provides a second, independent channel of authentication — so even if the manifest is stripped by re-encoding, the watermark persists in the audio signal.

Both are applied to the mastered MP3. The underlying stems, MIDI, and MusicXML do not carry either signature (they don't need to — they're components, not the final recording).

Does AuthorMark degrade audio quality?

No detectable degradation. AudioSeal operates below the audible threshold — testing at –30 dBFS and –60 dBFS shows no ABX-discernible difference. C2PA is metadata; it doesn't touch the audio signal at all.

Will public verifiers recognize my AuthorMark during Open Beta?

Partly. The cryptographic signatures verify correctly — the math works. But our signing certificate is not yet lodged in public C2PA trust lists (Adobe CAI, etc.) — public verifiers will say something like "signed by an unknown authority, signature valid" until we complete the trust-list lodgement at GA (targeted late July 2026).

This is fine for Beta. The signatures are real and mathematically valid; the trust-list step is a public directory listing we don't need until commercial release.

How do I verify AuthorMark on a file I have?

Option 1 — browser (easiest): Upload the MP3 to contentcredentials.org/verify. It will parse the C2PA manifest and show you the claim details.

Option 2 — command line: Install c2patool from GitHub (Content Authenticity Initiative). Run c2patool <your-file.mp3> and inspect the JSON output.

Option 3 — AudioSeal: Install Meta's AudioSeal detector (Python, open-source). Run the detector against the MP3 — you'll get a per-second confidence score. Expect near-1.0 on the entire track.

Can I remove AuthorMark?

Re-encoding the MP3 (e.g., exporting through a DAW) will typically strip the C2PA manifest, because most DAWs don't preserve it yet. The AudioSeal watermark is more resilient — it survives most transcoding.

You can technically remove both. But deliberately removing the provenance markers on AI-generated audio you're distributing commercially is likely to run afoul of the EU AI Act and California SB 942 starting August 2, 2026. We do not recommend it.

What does the "AuthorMark attached" vs "AuthorMark pending" pill mean?

Pending (grey). Your song's audio file exists and is playable, but the watermarking + signing pipeline is still working on it. This usually clears within 10–30 seconds after composition completes; longer for Studio Quality re-renders.

Attached (gold). Watermarking and signing are complete. The MP3 now carries both signatures and verifies as authentic.

The pill updates automatically without a page refresh. If it is stuck on pending for more than 5 minutes, email us — something went wrong in the pipeline and we want to know.

Does AuthorMark cost anything?

No. Every song generated on BananaRat Studio receives AuthorMark. It is not a paid tier feature.

Why is the CAWG "Trainer-Data-Miner" assertion there?

CAWG TDM is a C2PA assertion that says "this content may not be used for AI training." It's a machine-readable opt-out. If a scraper follows C2PA standards, it will see your song's CAWG TDM assertion and exclude it from training corpora. Most responsible AI companies are moving toward respecting these flags through 2026.

This is in addition to our platform-level commitment not to train on your content (see Privacy Policy §2) — CAWG TDM travels with your song out in the wild, after it leaves our platform.

What happens when I restyle or Studio-Quality re-render?

Every derivative render produces its own AuthorMark. A restyled version (Jazz Ballad cover of a country song) is a new signed MP3 with its own manifest. A Studio Quality re-render is likewise signed independently. You'll see the AuthorMark pill update as each render's signature attaches.

The original composition stays signed too — you're not overwriting history.

What if my song is flagged by an AI-content detector despite AuthorMark?

AuthorMark is provenance, not AI-content detector override. If a streaming platform or sync library uses an AI detector and it flags your song, that's their detector's call — AuthorMark doesn't change it. But AuthorMark does give you receipts: the signed manifest documents exactly when, where, and under what terms the audio was created, which can support an appeal if you need one.

Is AuthorMark the same as Adobe's Content Credentials?

Technically yes. Adobe Content Credentials is Adobe's user-facing brand for C2PA manifests. AuthorMark wraps Adobe-compatible C2PA + Meta's AudioSeal watermark into one platform-level feature with a single badge.

Concretely: a manifest we sign shows up the same way a Photoshop or Firefly-signed manifest does. Drag the MP3 into Content Credentials Verify and you'll see the claim details — author, timestamp, CAWG training opt-out — whether the signing tool was us or Adobe. Manifests we write read in Adobe tools; manifests they write read in ours.

Not covered here

For ownership of your song (who owns what, PRO registration, commercial release), see the Song Ownership FAQ. For data handling and training, see the Privacy Policy. For general Beta caveats and known limitations, see the Beta Tester Quickstart.

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