In the strongest sign yet that the world’s biggest record labels are embracing AI, leading AI-music platform Suno announced Tuesday that it has settled Warner Music Group‘s lawsuit over the use of its songs in Suno’s training data, and Suno and WMG are partnering on “next-generation licensed AI music.”
“This landmark pact with Suno is a victory for the creative community that benefits everyone,” Robert Kyncl, CEO of Warner Music Group, said in a statement. “With Suno rapidly scaling, both in users and monetization, we’ve seized this opportunity to shape models that expand revenue and deliver new fan experiences. AI becomes pro-artist when it adheres to our principles: committing to licensed models, reflecting the value of music on and off platform, and providing artists and songwriters with an opt-in for the use of their name, image, likeness, voice and compositions in new AI songs.” The deal follows Suno’s announcement last week of a $250 million funding round.
Suno CEO Mikey Shulman — whose company says it’s attracted 100 million users, and is the engine behind most viral AI music — called the deal “a paradigm shift in how music is made, consumed, experienced and shared.” In a blog post addressed to Suno’s user community, he emphasized that Suno’s existing functioning — which includes the creation of songs from written prompts and uploaded audio — will continue. “You’ll still be able to create original songs the way you love today,” he wrote. “Our core experience remains focused on giving everyone access to powerful music creation.” He promised that even higher quality music-creation models are coming, trained on licensed music from WMG — it’s unclear whether artists will be allowed to opt out of inclusion in that training data.
In June 2024, Warner Music Group joined Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in filing lawsuits against both Suno and its much smaller rival Udio, accusing the AI companies of mass copyright infringement. The labels alleged that both platforms had trained their models on vast troves of copyrighted recordings without permission — a practice the AI companies defended as fair use. Universal Music Group settled with Udio in late October, followed by Warner’s own settlement with Udio last week.
The Music Artists Coalition, a nonprofit founded by legendary artist manager Irving Azoff, has cautiously welcomed the recent wave of AI deals while raising pointed questions about their terms. “We’ve seen this before — everyone talks about ‘partnership,’ but artists end up on the sidelines with scraps,” Azoff said in a statement following the Universal-Udio settlement last month. “Artists must have creative control, fair compensation, and clarity about deals being done based on their catalogs.” (The Music Artists Coalition did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment on the Suno-WMG deal.)
Udio’s deal with Universal meant that users would no longer be able to download their creations from the platform — which led to an outcry from users — but Suno reached more favorable terms with WMG: Downloads will continue for paid users, subject to a monthly limit to be announced. (Suno Studio, aimed at power users, will continue to have unlimited downloads.) “We know being able to download the songs you make in Suno is very important to the Suno community, and that functionality isn’t going away,” Shulman wrote.
The Suno-WMG deal will also introduce what Suno describes as “new experiences for fan engagement,” allowing users to create content featuring participating Warner artists’ voices, compositions, and likenesses. Artists and songwriters will be able to decide whether to opt in, according to both companies.
As part of the deal, Suno acquired the concert-discovery platform Songkick from WMG — the idea, the company’s press release says, is to bring “together the power of interactive music with live performance.” Neither company disclosed financial terms of the settlement or the ongoing partnership.
In the end, Shulman promised Suno users, “We’re heading towards a world where people don’t just press play — they play with their music.”
