Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME), and Warner Music Group (WMG) have joined forces to take two major AI music-making companies to court.
According to an NBC report, UMG, SME, and WMG all filed lawsuits on Monday against Suno and Udio-maker Uncharted Labs. Both of these software companies recently released AI programs which enable people to generate full songs from text prompts.
What are the labels arguing?
In the lawsuit, the labels claim that Suno and Udio have been “deliberately evasive” over how exactly the companies trained these AI models. They accuse these AI services of “copying decades worth of the world’s most popular sound recordings” when training these AI services.
The music labels were rallied together by the Recording Industry Association of America trade organization. In a statement, RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier said: “The music community has embraced AI and we are already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers to build sustainable AI tools centered on human creativity that put artists and songwriters in charge. But we can only succeed if developers are willing to work together with us.”
He continued: “Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”
The news comes after UMG removed its artists’ music from TikTok after failing to reach a licensing agreement with the platform earlier this year. The stalemate lasted three months before the two parties were eventually able to reach a resolution.
