US Big Three Record Labels Sue AI Firms for Copyright Infringement

How Suno and Udio’s Copyright Battle Could Impact AI Music Creation

Photo by John Matychuk on Unsplash

Two more AI companies sued for copyright infringement.

On June 24, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced a lawsuit. Sony Music, Universal Music, and Warner Records are suing two AI startups: Suno and Udio. They claim these companies used copyrighted audio without permission to train AI models.

The case against Suno was filed in Massachusetts. The case against Udio was filed in New York.

The record companies want the court to:
1. Declare that Suno and Udio broke copyright laws.
2. Stop them from doing it again.
3. Make them pay for the infringement. They want $150,000 for each work that was used without permission.

Mitch Glazier, the RIAA’s CEO, says companies like Suno and Udio are wrong. They shouldn’t use artists’ work for profit without permission. He thinks this stops real AI innovation.

Glazier wants better cooperation between record companies and AI. He says the music industry is working with responsible AI developers. They’re making AI tools that focus on human creativity.

Udio says they don’t want to copy content in their training data. They use filters to avoid copying copyrighted works or artists’ voices.

This case is important. If the court says this is fair use, AI music companies won’t need to get permission from record companies. If not, AI companies will need to work with record companies.

If the court says it’s not fair use, they’ll decide how much the AI companies should pay. There’s no fixed amount. The court will look at things like how famous the songs are, how much they were used, and if the AI companies meant to break the law.

AI can make many types of content, including text, pictures, audio, and video.

https://suno.com/explore

Suno and Udio make music from the text. They’re like ChatGPT for music.

Suno started in 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They released their AI product in December 2023. In May 2024, they got $125 million in funding. Some say this made the company worth $500 million.

Udio was started in December 2023 by former Google DeepMind researchers. They’re based in New York. In April 2024, they released a free test version and raised $10 million.

Like most AI products, these companies let users make songs for free. They also offer paid subscriptions.

Why are record companies upset with Suno and Udio?

The lawsuit said when they typed “1950s rock and roll, jerry lee lewis, sun studio” into Suno, it made a song called “You shake my nerves and you rattle my br”. This song was very similar to Lewis’s 1961 “Great Balls of Fire”.

For Udio, they typed “a 1983 song by an American singer and dancer, electronic, r&b, pop-rock, post-disco, funk” and some lyrics from Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”. Udio made a song called “Midnight Denial” that was like “Billie Jean”.

The record companies think these similarities show Suno and Udio used copyrighted music to train their AI. They say it couldn’t be so similar otherwise.