Tags: AI music

AI-powered music creator Suno is at odds with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment over how users may share AI-generated tracks. Both majors demand that songs stay within the app, while Suno wants broader distribution. The dispute follows a 2024 copyright lawsuit that also involved Warner Records, which later settled. Suno’s clash highlights the music industry’s struggle to reconcile AI creativity with traditional licensing models. Read more

Suno, the AI‑driven music service that markets a $24‑a‑month Premier Plan for creating original tracks, is letting users slip copyrighted material past its detection system. By uploading a song, slowing it with free software, or adding brief bursts of white noise, creators can generate AI‑styled imitations of hits like Beyoncé’s “Freedom” and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” The resulting covers, which sound eerily close to the originals, can be exported and placed on streaming services, raising fresh concerns about royalty avoidance and artist protection. Read more

Suno has launched version 5.5 of its AI music model, shifting focus from pure fidelity improvements to user‑driven customization. The update introduces three new tools—Voices, My Taste, and Custom Models—that let creators train the system on their own vocal timbre, learn individual genre preferences, and tailor the model to specific music catalogs. While My Taste is available to all users, Voices and Custom Models are limited to Pro and Premier subscribers. The rollout promises a more personal and controllable AI‑generated music experience. Read more

Suno, the AI-powered music creation platform, announced that it now has 2 million paid subscribers and generates $300 million in annual recurring revenue. The growth follows a recent $250 million funding round that valued the company at $2.45 billion. While the service has enabled users with little musical experience to produce chart‑ready tracks, it has also faced copyright lawsuits from musicians and record labels. A settlement with Warner Music Group now allows Suno to use licensed catalog music, and viral user‑generated songs have led to high‑value record deals. Read more

Bandcamp announced a policy that prohibits music and audio created wholly or substantially by artificial intelligence. The platform says the move aims to ensure fans can trust that music on the site is made by humans and to protect artists from AI impersonation. The decision arrives amid rising popularity of AI‑generated songs, legal disputes involving AI music companies, and ongoing debates about copyright and the value of human‑made art. Read more

Bandcamp announced a policy that bans any music or audio that is "wholly or in substantial part" created by generative AI. The platform also prohibits the use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles. Content suspected of being AI‑generated may be removed, and users are given tools to flag such material. The move positions Bandcamp as one of the first streaming services with a clear AI policy, addressing concerns about AI‑generated “slop” that has been flooding other platforms. Bandcamp continues its artist‑first approach, highlighted by its Bandcamp Fridays program that directs 100 percent of streaming revenue to musicians. Read more

Deezer’s recent experiment, conducted with research firm Ipsos, revealed that the vast majority of listeners struggle to tell AI‑generated tracks from human‑made songs. In a survey of thousands of participants, only a tiny fraction correctly identified all AI songs, while many expressed surprise and discomfort at the results. The findings have sparked debate over transparency, labeling, and the potential impact of AI on the music industry, prompting Deezer and other platforms to consider new policies for AI‑generated content. Read more

Warner Music Group has entered a licensing agreement with AI music creation platform Suno, allowing users to generate songs using the voices, names, images and compositions of artists who opt in. The deal gives participating artists control over how their likenesses are used and promises new revenue streams. WMG also withdrew a lawsuit it had filed against Suno, signaling a shift toward collaborative AI adoption across major record labels. Read more

Suno, an AI music startup founded by Mikey Shulman, recently secured a $250 million financing round that values the company at $2.45 billion. The funding comes as the firm faces lawsuits from the three major record labels, the RIAA and several independent artists over alleged unauthorized training of its model on copyrighted material. Suno’s flagship product, the Create feature, generates full tracks from text prompts, while its newer Studio offering mimics a digital audio workstation. Critics argue the technology bypasses artistic skill and could devalue recorded music, and they note the premium pricing of Suno’s Premier plan compared with established DAWs. Read more

Suno, the AI‑powered music platform that lets users generate songs from text prompts, announced a $250 million Series C financing that pushes its post‑money valuation to $2.45 billion. The round was led by Menlo Ventures and included Nvidia’s venture arm NVentures among others. Suno now reports $200 million in annual revenue and offers both free and paid subscription tiers for creators. At the same time, the company is fighting lawsuits from Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music, which allege the startup trained its models on copyrighted material without permission. The legal challenges highlight the broader uncertainty surrounding AI training data while investors remain bullish on Suno’s growth potential. Read more

Suno has replaced its free‑tier v3.5 model with the new v4.5‑All, delivering quicker generation, richer sound, and more expressive vocals. The upgraded model brings professional‑level song creation to anyone without a subscription, handling tone shifts and prompts more effectively while still being optimized for efficiency. The move arrives amid growing competition in the AI music space, where many platforms keep their most advanced tools behind paywalls. Suno’s decision to elevate its free offering could pressure rivals to broaden access, even as the industry faces scrutiny over AI‑generated content. Read more

OpenAI is reportedly developing a new AI tool that creates music from text or short audio prompts. The effort involves students from the Juilliard School annotating musical scores, though the school says it is not officially part of the project. The proposed system would let users generate instrumental tracks, background music, or accompaniments tailored to specific moods or tempos. If released, the technology would compete with existing AI music platforms such as Suno and Udio and could trigger additional copyright disputes with record labels, building on OpenAI's earlier experiments with MuseNet and Jukebox. Read more

OpenAI is reportedly developing a tool that can generate music from text and audio prompts. The company has partnered with students from The Juilliard School to annotate music scores, creating training data for the AI system. Potential uses include generating guitar accompaniment for vocal tracks or adding background music to videos. The effort reflects a broader surge in AI‑generated music, with startups like Suno and ElevenLabs launching similar products and AI‑created tracks already appearing on streaming platforms. Industry observers note the rise of AI music spam and reference past controversies such as the Velvet Sundown incident. Read more

Napster, the former music‑sharing service now owned by Infinite Reality, has launched Napster View, a hardware‑software suite that adds a holographic AI assistant to MacBooks with Apple Silicon. The attach‑on‑screen device displays a library of around 15,000 AI agents with distinct personalities and skills, ranging from design helpers to well‑being guides. Powered by models from Microsoft, OpenAI and Google Gemini, the system can see the user’s screen and camera feed, offer contextual advice, and even create digital twins that act on the user’s behalf. Pricing starts at $99 plus service fees. Read more

Spotify announced a partnership with the three major record labels—Sony, Universal and Warner—along with digital‑rights groups Merlin and Believe to develop AI‑driven music tools that prioritize artists. The initiative, outlined in a blog post, emphasizes responsible AI use, fair compensation, and direct artist‑fan connections. It follows Spotify’s recent effort to clean up unauthorized AI‑generated tracks on its platform and builds on its own AI features such as the AI DJ, personalized daylist, and AI‑generated playlists. The company frames the collaboration as a proactive step to shape the future of music innovation responsibly. Read more

Music technology developer Aiode has introduced a desktop AI music platform that combines production tools with ethically trained virtual musicians. The platform lets creators regenerate or refine specific song sections while ensuring that real musicians whose styles are modeled receive compensation. Aiode highlights transparent model training, user control over output, and rights retention as core differentiators. The launch positions the company as a privacy‑ and rights‑focused alternative to cloud‑based AI music services, aiming to attract artists who seek precise creative control without compromising ethical standards. Read more

Poet Telisha “Nikki” Jones, operating under the AI‑created persona Xania Monet, has signed a reported $3 million record deal with Hallwood Media. Using the Suno AI tool, Jones transforms her poetry into fully produced songs that have climbed charts and amassed nearly ten million U.S. streams. While the project showcases the commercial potential of AI‑generated music, industry observers warn that such deals could sideline human musicians, alter live‑performance expectations, and prompt ethical debates about authenticity in the music business. Read more

Major record labels, led by the Recording Industry Association of America, have escalated a lawsuit against AI music generator Suno, accusing the company of illegally ripping songs from YouTube to train its generative models. The amended complaint, filed on September 19th, alleges Suno used code to download copyrighted tracks from Universal, Sony and Warner, bypassing YouTube’s rolling cipher encryption and violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Suno, which has not disclosed its training data, claims fair‑use protection, but the plaintiffs seek statutory damages of $2,500 per act of circumvention and up to $150,000 per infringed work. Read more

At the Made on YouTube live event, YouTube announced a suite of generative AI features aimed at Shorts creators. The rollout includes a custom, low‑latency version of Google’s Veo 3 model called Veo 3 Fast, new motion‑transfer and style‑transfer capabilities, a speech‑to‑song remixing tool powered by Lyria 2, and an “Edit with AI” assistant that drafts short videos from raw footage. The initial launch covers the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with plans to expand to additional regions. Read more