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AI music

Major Labels Sued Suno and Udio Over AI Music Training. What Changed by August 2026

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On June 24, 2024, record-company plaintiffs filed two separate federal copyright cases—one against Suno, Inc. in Massachusetts and one against Uncharted Labs, Inc., the company behind Udio, in New York. The labels allege that the startups copied large numbers of copyrighted sound recordings without permission to train generative-music systems, then offered tools capable of producing music resembling recognizable recordings and artists.

The dispute has since moved partly into licensing: Udio settled with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, while Warner also settled its claims against Suno. But Sony’s Udio case and Universal’s and Sony’s claims against Suno remained active in the status reviewed on August 16, 2026. No final court ruling identified in those materials decides whether training AI on copyrighted music is fair use.

What happened on June 24, 2024?

The Recording Industry Association of America announced coordinated litigation, not one combined lawsuit. The record-company plaintiffs filed separate cases in separate courts:

Case Court and defendant Filing
UMG Recordings, Inc. et al. v. Suno, Inc., No. 1:24-cv-11611 U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts; Suno, Inc. June 24, 2024; Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, with Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson handling pretrial matters
Major-label action against Uncharted Labs, Inc. (Udio) U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York June 24, 2024

The RIAA announcement is here: RIAA announcement. The Suno docket identifies the Massachusetts action as a copyright case: Suno docket.

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Who sued whom?

The plaintiffs were record-company entities associated with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, including Capitol Records, Warner Records, Atlantic-related entities and other affiliates. The RIAA announced and coordinated the cases; it was not itself the catalog owner suing as a plaintiff. Udio’s legal defendant was Uncharted Labs, Inc., rather than the shorthand “Udio.”

What the labels allege

The complaints’ allegations are not findings by either court. In the filed Suno complaint, the plaintiffs describe a process in which recordings were allegedly scraped or downloaded, assembled into a training corpus and used in model development. They allege that Suno and Udio made unauthorized copies of massive numbers of sound recordings and that their services could generate outputs resembling particular recordings, artists, vocal qualities or arrangements.

The labels also point to commercial tiers that let users create and potentially monetize generated music. Their theory is that unlicensed training and products competing with human-made recordings create both copyright infringement and market harm. The Suno complaint is available at the filed complaint; a case tracker summarizes allegations in both matters at Mishcon de Reya’s tracker.

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Which rights are involved?

  • Sound-recording copyright: the fixed recorded performance, the main subject of the original actions.
  • Musical-work copyright: melody, harmony and lyrics, which may belong to songwriters or publishers rather than a label.
  • Performer and labor rights: contractual, collective-bargaining and neighboring interests can belong to musicians and vocalists.
  • Other statutory claims: amended pleadings may raise issues such as copyright-management information or circumvention under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Why training and generated outputs are separate questions

Training-stage copying

The labels’ central theory is that making copies of protected recordings to build or train a model can itself infringe, even when a model does not contain an easily playable copy of every source track.

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Output-stage infringement

A generated file raises a different question if it reproduces protected expression from a particular recording or composition. Similarity, or the ability to elicit a familiar result with a prompt, may be evidence of memorization, reproduction or market harm, but resemblance alone does not automatically establish infringement.

Copyright also does not give a rights holder ownership of a general musical style. A label may control a sound recording while songwriters, publishers, performers, unions or collaborators retain separate rights.

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How Suno and Udio have defended the cases

Suno’s position

Suno’s defenses are legal arguments, not established facts. They include the possibility that training copies are temporary or technically necessary; that model training is transformative and produces a new, non-infringing product; that copyrighted works in a training set do not make every output infringing; and that plaintiffs must prove what was copied and what legally cognizable harm resulted.

A 2026 discovery order records Suno’s proposed “copyright abuse” theory, while noting that the theory had not been adopted in the relevant circuit. It also reflects disputes about training data, market effects, later models and Suno’s Warner licensing arrangement: 2026 discovery ruling.

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Udio’s position

Udio has argued that allegations about training data do not necessarily show that every user output infringes a particular copyright; that non-public training copies may be legally different from public distribution; that copying to develop a new technology may qualify as fair use; and that copyright does not protect an artist’s general style. These are litigation positions recorded in the case tracker, not rulings.

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Why fair use remains unresolved

Any merits decision would have to apply the four statutory fair-use factors to technical evidence that was not finally resolved in the materials reviewed:

  • Purpose and character: commercial services may favor the labels, while technological transformation and non-public training may favor the startups.
  • Nature of the works: sound recordings are highly creative and expressive.
  • Amount and substantiality: the parties dispute how much was copied and what portions were needed for training.
  • Market effect: the labels point to substitution and lost licensing opportunities; the companies dispute the causal link and the relevant market.

No final merits ruling identified as of August 16, 2026 establishes that AI training on copyrighted music is always fair use or always infringement.

What changed in 2025 and 2026?

Development Status and qualification
Udio and Universal Settlement and licensing partnership announced in late 2025; financial terms were not disclosed. The companies contemplated a new music-creation and streaming platform.
Udio and Warner Warner settled its Udio litigation. Udio restricted downloads of user-created songs after the Universal announcement, according to Associated Press reporting.
Udio and Sony Sony remained in litigation. Sony alleged in a proposed amended complaint that Udio had “copied and ingested” 30,442 Sony recordings; that number is an allegation, not a judicially verified inventory.
Suno and Warner Warner settled its claims against Suno; the remaining Suno litigation involved Universal and Sony.
Expansion of the Suno case The labels sought to add more than 61,000 recordings. Suno asked the court to block the expansion while discovery and amendment issues continued. The number refers to a proposed litigation expansion, not 61,000 proven infringements. See Music Business Worldwide.
Later Suno models The 2026 discovery ruling discusses v4.5, v4.5+ and v5 in disputes over development information. Model names and data practices can change over time.
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Settlements did not decide whether training was legal

A settlement resolves or narrows claims between particular parties. It is not a judicial holding that training was fair use, that training was infringement, that every generated song is lawful or that every output is infringing. A license also does not prove that earlier conduct was unlawful, and it may cover future models without resolving confidential claims about past training.

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Why session musicians now matter

Label-startup licensing created a separate labor dispute. On June 5, 2026, the American Federation of Musicians sued Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group in the Southern District of New York. AFM alleges that recordings featuring union musicians were licensed to Suno and Udio without compensation or credit and that collective-bargaining “new use” provisions required payment for this new commercial purpose. This is separate from the original label-versus-startup copyright cases. The reported allegations are summarized at Music Business Worldwide.

Practical implications for creators and businesses

Musicians uploading recordings

  • Do not upload unreleased material unless you control the recording, composition, samples and collaborator permissions.
  • Read whether the service can retain inputs, use them for model development or sublicense outputs.

Users releasing generated tracks

  • “Commercial use allowed” is a contract term, not a guarantee against infringement claims.
  • Keep prompts, source files, stems, licenses and version information.
  • Check distributor and platform policies before release.

Developers and labels

Licensed catalogs, provenance records and explicit prospective rights can reduce uncertainty, but a license from a label may not settle songwriter, performer or union claims.

Alternative production workflows

Digital-audio workstations such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio and Pro Tools provide user-controlled production rather than opaque model training. Licensed libraries including Splice, Native Instruments, Epidemic Sound and Artlist still require users to check coverage for commercial release, derivatives, claims, perpetual use and AI-related restrictions.

Timeline

  • July 2023: Suno launched, according to litigation-tracker material.
  • April 2024: Udio launched, according to the same tracker.
  • June 24, 2024: separate Suno and Udio complaints were filed and announced.
  • August 2024: Suno publicly characterized the litigation as an effort to suppress competition, according to contemporary reporting.
  • Late 2025: Udio settled with Universal and Warner; Warner also settled with Suno.
  • June 5, 2026: AFM filed its compensation and credit lawsuit.
  • May–June 2026: Sony sought to add approximately 30,442 Udio recordings; the Suno plaintiffs sought to add more than 61,000 recordings.
  • August 16, 2026: the central fair-use question remained unresolved in the reviewed materials.

The Bottom Line

The 2024 lawsuits were real, separate federal cases alleging unauthorized copying of copyrighted sound recordings for AI training. Settlements have pushed the industry toward licensing, but they have not answered the central fair-use question—and they have opened a further dispute over whether session musicians must be paid and credited.

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