Breaking news: Big music labels suing Suno and Udio over AI-based copyright infringement 🗣️

Insights on today's legal action by Sony, Universal, and Warner on copyright infringement by Suno and Udio with generative AI for music. (Audio; 3:11)

According to this AP news story which broke today:

“The Recording Industry Association of America announced the lawsuits Monday brought by labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records. One case was filed in federal court in Boston against Suno AI, and the other in New York against Uncharted Labs, the developer of Udio AI.”

The plaintiffs are asking for damages “up to $150,000 per work infringed” or the actual damages and/or profits from the infringements. Both suits request jury trials.

Suno has commented; the AP news story has their remarks. Udio and Microsoft have not yet commented (Suno is available via Copilot).

The music labels have been moving, tentatively, to enable their artists to collaborate with genAI music companies. For example, on Nov. 16, 2023, Universal and Warner announced a partnership with YouTube on the AI text-to-music generator DreamTrack. The focus is voice cloning, with the artists’ consent.

The filings contain details on songs that have been infringed, and artist or producer tags that show up in songs. Two songs are listed in both lawsuits as infringed:

• “Sway” (Michael Bublé, Warner)

• “Dancing Queen” (ABBA, Universal)

The Suno suit has 8 more examples ¹. The Udio suit lists 10 additional songs ² plus 13 voices ³.

Both lawsuits are positioned as copyright infringement for lyrics, melodies, and voices. Violations of NIL (name, image, likeness) rights for performers are also likely to be actionable. However, the copyright scope includes lyrics and melodies and is broader. Also, ownership of NIL rights is probably less uniform; in many cases, the artists may hold those rights, not the music labels.

Big question: Will this set of copyright lawsuits actually give musical artists the 4Cs they deserve (consent, control, credit, and compensation)? Or will it just transfer money from the genAI music companies to the pockets of the music labels? Time will tell.

The legal fight is likely to be a long haul, and the outcome could impact other domains where generative AI is being used with scraped training data (such as writing, graphic art, or photography). Multi-modal AI is also at risk. I’ll post further as it evolves.

This article is not a substitute for legal advice and is meant for general information only.

Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

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References and End Notes

See this “AI for Music” page for a complete set of links to all posts and company profile pages in this article series.

Further info and insights

• LinkedIn article by

  Ed Newton-Rex

• Substack note and LinkedIn article by

  Luiza Jarovsky
  on the Suno lawsuit

• Details on the lawsuits - RIAA filings against Suno and Udio

• Rolling Stone article

• The Verge article with additional context

Credit for the 4Cs (consent, control, credit, compensation) phrasing goes to the Algorithmic Justice League (led by Dr. Joy Buolamwini).

Credit for the original 3 Cs (consent, credit, and compensation) belongs to CIPRI (Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative) for their “3Cs' Rule: Consent. Credit. Compensation©.” 

Lawsuit Details

1. 8 examples given in Suno lawsuit

1. “Johnny B. Goode” (Chuck Berry / UMG)

2. “Rock Around the Clock” (Bill Haley & His Comets. UMG)

3. “I Got You (I Feel Good)” (James Brown, UMG)

4. “Great Balls of Fire” (Jerry Lee Lewis, UMG)

5. “The Thrill is Gone” (B.B. King, UMG)

6. “Sway” (Michael Bublé, Warner)

7. Producer CashMoney AP

8. Singer Jason Derulo

2. 10 song examples given in Udio lawsuit:

1. “My Girl” (The Temptations, UMG)

2. “American Idiot” (Green Day, Warner)

3. “All I Want for Christmas is You” (Mariah Carey, Sony)

4. “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” (Brenda Lee, UMG)

5. “Jingle Bell Rock” (Bobby Helms, UMG)

6. “Last Christmas” (Wham!, Sony)

7. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (Andy Williams, Sony)

8. “My Way” (Frank Sinatra, UMG)

9. “Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson, Sony)

10. “I Get Around” (Beach Boys, Capitol)

3. 13 voice examples given in the Udio lawsuit:

1. Vocals on Bladee’s “Icedancer” mixtape

2. Vocals on Hamilton soundtrack (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Atlantic)

3. Michael Jackson

4. Bruce Springsteen

5. Billie Holiday

6. The Beach Boys

7. Sting

8. Johnny Cash

9. Coldplay

10. Jon Anderson

11. The Beatles

12. Michael Bublé

13. José Feliciano