Music Labels Sue Suno, Udio for Copyright Infringement

On Monday, Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Records sued Suno and Udio for gross copyright infringement for utilizing their records to train music-generating AI systems

According to federal lawsuits filed against Udio in New York and Suno in Massachusetts, the companies copied music without permission to instruct their systems to generate music that will “directly compete with, cheapen, and ultimately drown out” the work of human artists.

Suno and Udio representatives did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding the complaints.

The complaints stated that Suno and Udio users have been able to replicate elements of songs such as The Temptations’ “My Girl,” Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” and James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good).”

Additionally, they have been able to produce vocals that are “indistinguishable” from musicians such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and ABBA.

The labels requested that the courts grant statutory damages of up to $150,000 per composition that the defendants are purportedly accused of copying.

The lawsuits are the first to specifically target music-generating AI, following a series of cases brought by authors, news outlets, and other entities regarding the purported misuse of their work to train text-based AI models that enable chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

AI companies have contended that their systems legitimately employ copyrighted material.

Suno, an AI system that generates music in response to user text queries, and Udio, an AI system based in New York, have successfully secured millions of dollars in funding this year.

According to the labels’ complaints, the companies have been “deliberately evasive” about the material they used to train their technology and that disclosing it would “admit willful copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale.”

Mitch Glazier, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, stated in a statement that unlicensed services such as Suno and Udio assert that it is “fair” to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their profit without consent or payment, “set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”