Warner Music Group, one of the major labels that sued AI song generator Suno last year for copyright infringement, has signed a licensing deal with the company. The new partnership, which settles their prior litigation, is designed to help Suno move toward a licensed model where users will pay to download songs made on its platform with artificial intelligence. According to the announcement, artists and songwriters will be compensated if they choose to opt in to AI deals, and will retain “full control” over how their music, likeness, and other copyrights are used. Suno has also acquired the concert listings Songkick, formerly owned by Warner, as part of the deal.
In a bid to hold back the AI music flooding streaming services, the current, more liberal Suno models will be phased out, according to the press release. Notably, the press release imagines a future where Suno launches “new, more advanced and licensed models,” but not fully licensed models, which would require mass industry cooperation.
Litigation by Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment, the companies that filed the lawsuit against Suno alongside Warner, is ongoing. That suit accused Suno and a similar company, Udio, of training AI on major-label artists like Drake, Bruce Springsteen, and Green Day, saturating the market “with machine-generated content that will directly compete with, cheapen, and ultimately drown out” the originals. In October, UMG settled its part of the lawsuit against Udio in a deal that limited the scope of the platform. Last week, Klay became the first AI music startup to land licensing deals with all three major labels and their publishing arms.
