The big three music companies are considering a lawsuit against AI startups Suno and Udio for allegedly training on copyrighted recordings, according to multiple sources.
The potential lawsuit, which will include Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music, will target a pair of companies that have quickly become two of the most important players in the emerging field of music artificial intelligence. While many of its competitors focus on creating music or lyrics or vocals, Suno and Udio allow users to create all three at the touch of a button. Two sources said the lawsuit could be filed as soon as next week. Representatives for the big three, as well as Suno and Udio, did not respond to requests for comment.
Music companies, including UMG, have already filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, another major AI company, over its use of copyrighted material to train models. But this case concerned only lyrics, which in many respects are legally similar to written matter. The new suit will deal with music and sound.
Just a few months since its release, Udio has already created what could be considered an AI-generated hit song with “BBL Drizzy,” a parody track created by a comedian King Vilonius and was popularized through a remix by super producer Metro Boomin. The song later reached new heights when it was sampled in Sexyy Red and Drake's song “U My Everything”, which became the first major example of an AI-generated song being sampled.
Suno has also seen early success since launching in December 2023. In May, the company announced via a blog post that it had raised a total of $125 million in funding from a group of notable investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.
Both companies, however, have drawn criticism from many in the music business who believe the models are being trained on vast amounts of copyrighted material, including songs, without consent, compensation or credit to rights holders. Reps for Suno and Udio previously declined to comment on whether or not they are being educated about protected copyrights, with Udio's co-founders saying Advertising sign They're just training to “good music.”
In a recent Rolling rock history about Suno, an investor Antonio Rodriguez admitted that Suno doesn't have licenses for any of the music it's trained on, but said that wasn't a concern of his, adding that this lack of such licenses is “the risk we had to take when we invested in the company, because It's the big wallet that's going to get sued right behind these guys… Honestly, if we had label deals when this company started, I probably wouldn't have invested in it. I think they should have made this product without limitations.”
In a series of articles on Music Business Worldwidefounder of non-profit AI security company Fairly Trained; Ed Newton-Rex, found that he was able to create music from Suno and Udio that “bears a striking resemblance to copyrighted music. This goes for melody, chords, style and lyrics,” he wrote. Both companies, however, prohibit users from prompting models to copy artists' styles by typing sentiments such as “a rock song in the style of Radiohead” or using specific artists' voices.
The case, if filed, will hinge on whether using unlicensed material to train AI models amounts to copyright infringement—something of an existential question for the growing field, as depriving AI models of new input could limit their abilities. Content owners in many fields, including book authors, comedians, and visual artists, have all filed similar lawsuits for education.
Many AI companies argue that such training is protected by the fair use doctrine of copyright — an important rule that allows people to reuse protected works without breaking the law. While fair use has historically allowed for things like news reporting and parody, AI companies say it's just as valid for “intermediate” use of millions of projects to build a machine that spits out entirely new creations. This argument will likely be the central question in any lawsuit over AI training.
Some AI companies have taken what is often called a more “ethical” approach to AI training, working directly with companies and rights holders to license their copyrights or create formal partnerships.
So far, big companies have embraced working with AI companies in this way. Already, UMG and WMG have partnered with YouTube for the DreamTrack AI voice experiment. Sony collaborated with Vermillio on a remix project for The Orb and David Gilmour. WMG has partnered with Edith Piaf's estate to recreate her voice using AI for an upcoming biopic. UMG launched an AI music incubator with YouTube Music. and most recently, UMG partnered with SoundLabs to let their artists create their own AI voice models for personal use in the studio.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/major-labels-weighing-lawsuit-ai-suno-udio-alleged-unlicensed-training/
