Music labels slam AI startups Suno and Udio with massive copyright lawsuit

Summary

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music have filed a lawsuit against AI music companies Suno and Udio, alleging massive copyright infringement.

According to Billboard, the major labels accuse the startups of infringing on copyrighted sound recordings “at an almost unimaginable scale.”

The lawsuit claims Suno and Udio illegally copied recordings from the labels to train their AI models. The goal, according to the plaintiffs, is to generate music that would “saturate the market with machine-generated content that will directly compete with, cheapen and ultimately drown out the genuine sound recordings on which [the services were] built.”

The labels allege that the companies illegally appropriated decades’ worth of music industry data. Suno recently claimed its model can generate “radio quality” songs, which seems to support the labels’ argument that AI music generators will compete directly with their offerings, rather than just being a tool for musicians.

The labels are seeking an injunction to stop the companies from using copyrighted songs for training purposes, as well as damages for existing copyright infringements. Suno and Udio have not yet responded to the allegations.

AI industry needs first major fair use ruling

The case seems similar to the numerous lawsuits against makers of large image, voice, and code models. Plaintiffs argue that using their content without consent for AI training to create competing products violates copyright.

Model makers invoke “fair use,” claiming transformative use of data where an AI system learns from, rather than copies, data – similar to how humans learn from texts to write new ones.

The fair use argument is complicated by instances where models produce plagiarized content. Courts will need to determine whether these generated copies are flaws in the models or part of their functionality, and whether their frequency justifies banning AI models or requiring royalties.

The music labels address the fair use argument in their complaint, stating that fair use applies in limited scenarios promoting human expression. They argue that Suno and Udio produce machine-generated music imitations.

In April, AI developer Ed Newton-Rex accused Suno AI of strongly imitating well-known hits in style, melody, harmony, or instrumentation. While Suno blocks prompts with artist names, small spelling mistakes or precise descriptions of a certain style can bypass this protection.

“The doctrine of fair use promotes human expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyrighted works in certain, limited circumstances, but [the services] offe[r] imitative machine-generated music—not human creativity or expression.”

There’s still no definitive ruling on fair use, but this lawsuit by major players in the music industry against two relatively small AI startups could set a much-needed precedent for the broader AI industry.

If you are looking for a copyright-free audio generator, take a look at the recently released Jen. The model is trained only on licensed content, and it pays royalties to artists, according to its creators.