Music labels like Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group have teamed up to sue AI music generation companies Suno and Udio for alleged copyright infringement. This lawsuit is part of a growing trend of legal actions against new technology.
Suno and Udio allow users to create audio clips by writing text prompts. The lawsuits, filed in New York and Boston with the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), claim that both companies copied songs and recordings without permission and distributed similar versions.
Suno’s CEO, Mikey Shulman, stated that their technology is designed to generate new outputs and not to copy existing content. He mentioned that they do not allow prompts that reference specific artists and had tried to explain this to the record labels, but the labels chose to pursue legal action instead.
UMG, Sony, and Atlantic Records (owned by Warner Music Group) allege that Suno trained its AI models using copyrighted music, generating music that sounds similar to existing songs. For example, they claim Suno produced 29 outputs in the style of “Johnny B. Goode,” a song owned by UMG. The labels also allege that Suno replicated unique elements of certain artists, like Jason Derulo’s habit of singing his name at the beginning of songs.
Similar accusations were made against Udio, with claims that the platform allows users to distribute samples resembling copyrighted recordings on commercial platforms like Spotify. Udio gained popularity when producer Metro Boomin used it to create an AI beat track called “BBL Drizzy,” which he released for free during a feud with Drake.
AI music generation platforms like Suno and Udio have been gaining traction, with companies like Google, Meta, and ElevenLabs also exploring this technology. Suno recently raised $125 million, reflecting the growing interest in AI music and voice platforms. This rise has led lawmakers to consider legislation to protect artists’ likenesses from being copied.
The lawsuits against Suno and Udio are not the first of their kind. UMG previously sued Anthropic for allegedly copying and distributing song lyrics without permission on its Claude chatbot. Anthropic argued that music lyrics are a tiny part of AI training data and do not significantly impact the labels.