The recording industry is stepping up its fight against unauthorized AI-generated music with lawsuits targeting two leading services, Suno and Udio.
Filed in separate US district courts, the lawsuits allege that the companies behind those programs have illegally exploited copyrighted sound recordings to train their AI-powered text-to-music models.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has reportedly led the lawsuits, representing the big three record labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records. The complaints emphasize that Suno and Udio have copied large quantities of sound recordings without obtaining proper permissions, thereby violating fundamental copyright laws.
According to the complaints, AI-powered music generation services such as Suno and Udio operate by ingesting massive data sets of popular music to create new outputs that mimic human sound recordings. This method, the lawsuits argue, not only infringes copyright but also poses risks of flooding the market with AI-generated music, which could overshadow genuine human-created works.
The lawsuits seek to achieve several goals: judicial declarations that the services have infringed copyrighted works, injunctive relief to prevent future infringements, and financial damages for past infringements.
RIAA President and CEO Mitch Glazier highlighted that while the music community is open to collaborating with responsible AI developers, unlicensed services pose a significant threat to the integrity and value of human creativity.
“The music community has embraced AI and we are already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers to create sustainable AI tools focused on human creativity that put artists and songwriters in charge,” Glazier said in a statement. “But we can only succeed if developers are willing to work with us. Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it's 'fair' to copy an artist's life's work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or payment , thwart the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”
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