Compeller
Compeller is a patent-pending AI show pipeline for live music. It generates audio-reactive visuals from a track, then performs them live through REACT to stages, streams and DMX lighting, for artists, DJs, venues and agent builders.
What is Compeller?
Compeller is a patent-pending AI show pipeline for live music, published by Compeller.ai from San Clemente, California. Its purpose is to carry one piece of music all the way to a screen: a track goes in, audio-reactive visuals come out, and those visuals are then performed in front of an audience. The company describes the chain in four steps, Generate, Refine, Perform and Release, and delivers it through two products. The web platform creates and stores Compels, its name for a music-driven visual project. REACT, a native macOS application, plays them in real time. A REST API and an MCP endpoint form a third, agent-first surface.
What separates REACT from an ordinary visualiser is what it listens to. Rather than react to amplitude or frequency alone, it analyses the harmonic field across all twelve pitch classes, detects key changes, tracks tension and energy, and finds phrase boundaries so that visual transitions land on musical ones. Two patent-pending engines sit on that analysis: Harmonic Geometry, a 3D field with seven topology states built on quaternionic symmetry, and Mythos, a continuous field modulated by Collatz state machines. The company credits published research by Robert Edward Grant as the mathematical inspiration. A bundled projectM/MilkDrop engine adds 9,804 presets in ten families, chosen automatically according to what the music is doing, while a four-act narrative system (Birth, Lock, Dive, Afterglow) shapes the arc of a set.
The output side is built for stages, not browsers: zero-copy GPU rendering and Metal, system audio capture through ScreenCaptureKit, five-layer video compositing, NDI at HD or 4K 60 fps, YouTube Live, Twitch and Kick streaming, MP4 recording, MIDI control, native Pro DJ Link where REACT appears as Deck 6, and lighting over OSC, Hue, WLED, USB-DMX and multi-universe Art-Net.
Maturity is early but demonstrable. This is a one-founder company surrounded by a team it presents as AI operators; it raised 500,000 USD in pre-seed funding, its USPTO application number 19044605 published on 7 August 2025, and its own REACT pipeline streams 24/7 on Kick and Twitch as continuous public proof.
What it does
- Generate audio-reactive visuals from a track, a stem, a playlist or a live input
- Perform those visuals live through REACT, the native macOS show engine
- Route the output to stage screens, projection, OBS scenes, VJ software or DMX lighting
- Refine the look, the edit rhythm and the output format before the show
- Export finished clips and reuse show visuals across releases and events
- Automate the whole pipeline through a REST API and an MCP endpoint
- Register webhooks for lifecycle events such as compel.completed and compel.failed
When to use Compeller / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Compeller is the right fit.
When to use Compeller
- Independent musicians and bands who need release visuals, stream assets and a stage look without a production-house budget.
- DJs and live performers who want a real-time show engine feeding projectors, LED walls, stream scenes and CDJ-linked setups.
- Venues, clubs and festivals that need repeatable visual workflows for house screens, stage packages and one-off events.
- Developers and AI agents that want to create projects, upload media, trigger renders and pull outputs through a REST API and an MCP endpoint.
- Pioneer CDJ, XDJ and DJM users on high-end Apple Silicon Macs, where REACT joins the Pro DJ Link network as Deck 6.
When not to use Compeller
- Windows, Linux and Intel Mac users: REACT runs only on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple Silicon M1 to M4, with 32 GB of RAM minimum.
- Anyone expecting a mobile app. The iOS and Android pages both read 'Coming Soon', and clause 1.1 of the terms states that REACT is not distributed through the App Store, Google Play or any third-party store.
- Buyers who need European data commitments: the site never mentions the GDPR, publishes no DPA and names no Article 27 representative.
- Creators who want their material kept out of model training. Clause 4.4 grants a perpetual, irrevocable training licence over Inputs and Outputs of the public service, with no user opt-out.
- Anyone looking for a music generator or hoping to skip rights clearance: Compeller starts from a track you must already be licensed to use, and clause 4.7 leaves publisher, label, PRO, sync and mechanical clearances entirely to you.
How to use Compeller
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Create a free account on the web platform: no credit card is required.
- Choose the track, stem, playlist or live input that will drive the visuals.
- Create a Compel: give it a title, upload the primary audio, then set the style, the target platform (TikTok, for instance), the aspect ratio (such as 9:16) and any artist context.
- Let the pipeline run through audio analysis, scene plan, scene creation, motion and video generation, then pick from the several renderings produced.
- Refine the result, adjusting the look, the edit rhythm and the output format until the render matches the set.
- Download REACT free of charge from the desktop download page and install it on a compatible Mac.
- Let your Compels sync from Compeller.ai down to the desktop app, and pair a compel with a specific track so it loads automatically when that track plays.
- Rehearse the performance path and save a backup render before the show.
- Plug the laptop into the same Ethernet network as the CDJs for zero-configuration Pro DJ Link, then route the output to stage screens, stream scenes, projection, VJ software or a DMX lighting workflow.
- For agents and developers: sign up self-serve with POST /api/v1/auth/signup, keep the Bearer token, upload audio as multipart, POST /api/v1/compels, poll GET /api/v1/compels/{id} (backing off when the response carries check_back_after_seconds) and fetch the file from GET /api/v1/renderings/{id}/download.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- The REACT desktop app is free, and the pricing page states that both the SaaS platform and REACT are given away, with payment only for generation.
- A permanent free plan with rendering minutes granted every month and no credit card required at sign-up.
- Transparent, tapering per-minute pricing: 0.25, then 0.20, 0.15 and 0.10 USD per inference minute as the tier rises.
- Audio analysis far beyond amplitude-driven visualisers, covering key, phrase, harmonic field, tension and energy.
- Deep stage integration out of the box: zero-configuration Pro DJ Link, MIDI, NDI, and lighting over OSC, Hue, WLED, DMX and Art-Net, all driven from the same musical source.
- Documented API, MCP and webhook surfaces with self-serve signup, so agents and developers can drive the pipeline end to end.
- Publicly verifiable proof of the product: the REACT pipeline streams 24/7 on Kick and Twitch, and Compeller leaves ownership of content, Inputs and Outputs with the user.
Cons
- REACT is macOS-only and demanding: macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon M1 to M4 and 32 GB of RAM minimum, which rules out Windows, Linux and Intel machines.
- No mobile application: the iOS and Android pages are both still marked 'Coming Soon'.
- No GDPR mention anywhere on the site, no published DPA, no Article 27 representative and no subprocessor list.
- A perpetual, irrevocable training licence over the Inputs and Outputs of the public service, with no user-facing opt-out.
- Contractual terms that favour the publisher: binding arbitration with a class-action waiver, automatic subscription renewal, liability capped at the greater of 500 USD or twelve months of fees, and full responsibility for music rights left to the user.
- Very limited storage on the entry tiers, 500 MB on both Free and Flexible, and no documented hosting commitment beyond a mention of transfers to the United States.
- A very young, very small company, with one founder and a team presented as AI operators, and limited human support hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm ET, Saturday 10am to 4pm ET, closed on Sunday.
Pricing & Plans
Compeller follows a freemium model, priced in USD and billed monthly. A permanent free plan is offered at 0.00 USD per month, with rendering minutes granted each month and no credit card required; note that the pricing page contradicts itself on that allowance, advertising 15 free monthly minutes in its headline and 30 minutes per month in the feature list of the same tier. A second subscription-free tier, Flexible, also stands at 0.00 USD per month and is billed purely on usage. The lowest paid entry point is Starter at 12.00 USD per month, ahead of Pro at 29.00 USD per month and Enterprise at 199.00 USD per month. Beyond the included allowance, rendering is charged by inference minute at a rate that tapers from 0.25 to 0.10 USD according to the tier; the site specifies that inference minutes measure the compute time used to generate visuals, not the length of the song. The REACT desktop application is free and requires no paid subscription, and payments are handled by Stripe, with no card data stored by Compeller.
- free rendering minutes each month (15 per the page headline
- 30 per the same tier's feature list)
- then 0.25 USD per minute
- full video editor
- 500 MB of online storage
- limited REACT access
- no commitment.
- pay-as-you-go at 0.25 USD per minute
- full video editor
- 500 MB of online storage
- limited REACT access
- no commitment.
- everything in Free plus 60 rendering minutes a month
- 0.20 USD per additional minute
- 5 GB of storage
- email support
- up to 10 projects and full REACT access.
- everything in Starter plus 200 minutes a month
- 0.15 USD per additional minute
- 50 GB of storage
- priority support
- unlimited projects
- API access and full REACT access.
- everything in Pro plus 2
- 000 minutes a month
- 0.10 USD per additional minute
- unlimited storage
- a dedicated account manager
- custom integrations
- an SLA and white-label options.
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Compeller handles your data.
GDPR overview
There is no GDPR implementation to report: the words GDPR, General Data Protection, EEA and Article 27 appear nowhere on the site, in text or in HTML. The only framework it exposes is Californian: section 7 of the privacy policy, effective 10 June 2026, sets out CCPA/CPRA rights to know and access, delete, correct, opt out of sale or sharing, limit the use of sensitive data, and be free from discrimination. Requests go through the account or privacy@compeller.ai, an authorised agent is accepted with proof, and answers are free within 45 calendar days, extendable by 45 more with notice. No EU representative under Article 27 is designated, no DPO is named, and no data processing agreement is published or offered. The policy states the company is US-based and that personal data may be transferred to the United States, where privacy laws may not be as protective.
Who owns the data?
Compeller states plainly that it does not claim ownership of Your Content, and does not claim ownership of any of your Inputs or Outputs. Ownership is not the whole picture, though. By uploading, you grant the company a fully paid, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive and sublicensable licence to use that material to operate and provide the service, and any Feedback you send carries no confidentiality obligation. You must also own or have cleared every right in the audio you upload. The account itself is treated differently: clause 2.3 gives you no ownership interest in it, all rights in the account remaining with the company.
Reuse rights
You keep your Inputs and Outputs and may reuse the visuals you generate without asking permission, subject to one contractual limit: clause 5(viii) forbids using the outputs to create or train a competing product. On Compeller's side, clause 4.4 states that Inputs and Outputs may be used to train, enhance, evolve and improve its AI models, algorithms and related technology, including for labelling, classification, content moderation and model training. Data processed for enterprise customers under a separate agreement (MSA, order form or SOW) is excluded from that training and stays inside the customer's environment. The privacy policy, effective 10 June 2026, adds service delivery and improvement, personalisation, security, communications, support, direct marketing, analytics and legal compliance, plus the creation of aggregated, de-identified or anonymised data that may be shared with third parties, with no attempt at re-identification. Others who touch the data include hosting and IT providers, the AI and inference vendors that process submitted content, support, email, marketing and analytics providers (Google Analytics is named), and Stripe as the PCI DSS Level 1 payment processor, Compeller storing and processing no card data itself. Content also travels to the destinations you choose yourself: Twitch, Kick, NDI, DMX, Art-Net, sACN and OLA. The company states that it does not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA, and that it collects no sensitive data such as biometrics, health data, government identifiers or precise geolocation.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Compeller publishes no hosting commitment in the technical sense: no data centre, cloud region or hosting provider is named anywhere on the site. What it does state is jurisdictional. The privacy policy, effective 10 June 2026, says the company is headquartered in the United States and may use service providers operating in other countries, and that personal information may be transferred to the United States or to other locations where privacy laws may not be as protective as those of the user's own state, province or country. Clause 15 of the terms adds that the Company Properties are controlled and offered from facilities in the United States of America. In practice, the domain resolves to 104.49.173.146, an address in Irvine, California, on AS7018 (AT&T Enterprises, LLC). Payments run through Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 processor, so card data never transits Compeller's own systems. The policy claims technical, organisational and physical safeguards while declining to guarantee absolute security. No hosting region choice, no data residency option and no subprocessor list are offered.
Where Compeller works
Country-level availability.
Not available in
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Compeller.
- Clause 4.4 grants Compeller a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide and sublicensable licence over your Inputs and Outputs, including for model training, and no user-facing opt-out exists.
- Music rights remain entirely yours to secure: publishers, labels, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, mechanicals and sync clearances all fall on you under clause 4.7, and you indemnify Compeller against any claim.
- Disputes go to binding arbitration with a class-action and jury-trial waiver unless you opt out of the arbitration clause, and liability is capped at the greater of twelve months of fees, 500 USD, or the statutory penalty.
- Subscriptions renew automatically for a term equal to the initial one, at the then-current rate: diarise the renewal date rather than trusting a reminder.
- The free plan is advertised inconsistently, at 15 free monthly minutes in the headline and 30 minutes per month in the same tier's feature list. Confirm the real allowance before planning around it.
- REACT's hardware floor, Apple Silicon with 32 GB of RAM, has to be checked against your actual machine before any commitment: a show that depends on it will not fall back to a spare Windows laptop.
- Privacy blind spots worth weighing: no GDPR mention, no DPA, no Article 27 representative, no subprocessor list, Do Not Track signals are not honoured, and clause 2.3 leaves you no ownership interest in your own account.
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Effort depends on the route. On the web, there is next to none: a free account with no card, upload a track, generate. REACT is barely harder, a free download installed directly from the publisher outside the App Store, but its hardware floor is strict: macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon M1 to M4, 32 GB of RAM, 500 MB of disk. Pro DJ Link is zero-configuration, needing only the same Ethernet network as the CDJs. The API route calls for real engineering: self-serve signup, a Bearer token to persist, multipart uploads, asynchronous polling and HMAC-SHA256 webhook verification.
Deployment
Integrations
Behind Compeller
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What is Compeller?
How is REACT different from an ordinary audio-reactive visualiser?
What exactly is patent-pending here?
What hardware does REACT need?
Is there a mobile app?
How much does Compeller cost?
Are my tracks used to train Compeller's models?
Who owns the visuals that are generated?
Can Compeller drive lighting and stage hardware?
Is there an API, and how do I get support?
Should you pick Compeller?
Compeller is a deliberately narrow product, and that is its strength. It does not try to be a general-purpose video generator: it turns music into visuals, then plays those visuals in front of an audience. The technical depth behind that ambition is unusual for a company of this size. Twelve-pitch-class harmonic analysis, two patent-pending engines, a 9,804-preset MilkDrop library, zero-configuration Pro DJ Link, multi-universe Art-Net and NDI output are not the feature list of a weekend project.
The commercial model is just as legible. The software is given away, REACT costs nothing and the free plan needs no card, while you pay for inference minutes at a rate that falls as you commit more. For an independent artist or a working DJ, the cost of finding out whether it fits is close to zero.
Two locks deserve real thought first. The hardware one is unforgiving: REACT runs only on Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later and at least 32 GB of RAM, so a large part of the market is simply out, and there is no mobile app. The legal one is heavier still. The terms grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train on the Inputs and Outputs of the public service, with no opt-out, and the site never mentions the GDPR, publishes no DPA and names no Article 27 representative. Music rights clearance also falls entirely on you.
Weigh the company itself as well. The domain was registered on 14 February 2024, the first Wayback capture dates from 18 April 2024, there is one named founder and 500,000 USD raised. Against that youth stands the 24/7 Kick and Twitch stream, genuine and continuously verifiable proof that the pipeline works. Try it on the free tier before it becomes load-bearing in a paid show.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.