Suno has announced the launch of the next iteration of its music AI platform, which - it is really very keen to stress - has been developed “with our industry partners”.
It then name-checks three specific industry partners - Warner Music, BMG and Believe - with Believe announcing just yesterday that it had done a deal with the AI company.
This new version of Suno - branded Suno V6 - is, we are told, “the result of years spent advancing our technology, getting feedback from artists and our community, strengthening safeguards, and building partnerships across the music industry”. So definitely very legit and definitely not something that pesky artists and rightsholders might want to sue over.
Of course, Suno is dealing with the music industry on two fronts at the moment, which involves employing two very different approaches. On one hand it wants to be everyone’s friend, while on the other it spends a significant amount of time telling the music industry to go fuck itself.
The first approach is represented by the cosy and entirely legitimate licensing deals it has negotiated and announced. The second through the lawsuits it continues to battle in courts around the world filed by an assortment of music companies and individual music creators.
So, one week - like this week - it will be busy announcing exciting new licensing deals with partners like Believe. Another week - like last week - it will be equally busy bad mouthing the music industry in court, last week scolding Universal Music and Sony Music in its response to the amended copyright infringement lawsuit they recently filed.
Suno’s big bid to turn all the lawsuits into licensing deals likely swings on what is billed in the final section of its v6 announcement earlier today, under the header “what comes next?”.
That’s where it promises “a new kind of product” which involves “opt-in experiences built around individual artists, where artists can choose to participate and get paid when they do, and fans get new ways to connect with the artists they love”. Which all sounds very cosy, very safe, and definitely not something that is a threat to the music industry.
It is also basically the kind of AI product that the record companies, and especially Universal, seem to be most excited by. Where the AI allows users to remix and rework existing tracks from participating artists, and then share those remixes within a “walled garden”, but not to download and release them.
Suno rival Udio managed to get Universal on board by basically saying that it would replace its platform generating generic music with one that does the walled gardened remixes. Suno is hoping to get the industry on board by offering the walled gardened remixes alongside the generic music. Which is presumably why Universal is still in the lawsuit camp rather than the licensing deal camp.
But some music companies have been persuaded by Suno’s approach, and that now includes distributor and artist services company Believe and its TuneCore DIY distribution platform.
Announcing its Suno deal yesterday, Believe said in a statement that “artists who consent to participate will be compensated for their music and their rights will be protected”. And they will “also benefit from Suno’s training protections and recently announced transparency tools and download limits”.
Believe boss Denis Ladegaillerie added, “The partnership we worked on with Suno unlocks powerful tools for all artists and labels. It now gives them a meaningful choice over how they can participate, protect their rights and enables them to share the value created by innovative responsible AI technologies”.
Suno boss Mikey Shulman - very much in music industry charm offensive mode while his lawyers concurrently fight all the legal battles - also put out a statement about the Believe deal, which will, he insisted, “significantly expand opportunities for independent artists, giving them access to creative tools, new paths to distribute their music through Believe and TuneCore, and more exposure”.
“We’ve been laying the foundation for the next generation of Suno, strengthening our safeguards, expanding our industry partnerships, and learning from artists testing our upcoming music models”, he continued. “We’re THRILLED to work with Believe on innovative product experiences that will give their artists new ways to earn and build even deeper connections with their fans”.
Suno’s lawyers, meanwhile, have told the US court overseeing the Universal and Sony litigation that the two majors’ copyright claims against the AI company are still bullshit. Even though they freely admit that Suno “obtained audio data from YouTube for use as training data”.
But all that copying of millions of tracks grabbed off YouTube and elsewhere was “fair use” of those copyright protected works under US copyright law and therefore no permission was required from Universal and Sony, the Suno legal team continue to argue.
Last week’s latest legal filing states, “Suno’s AI tool uses a back-end technological process, invisible to the public, in the service of creating an ultimately non-infringing new product”. And that process is “quintessential fair use”.
Universal and Sony dispute the idea any kind of AI training is fair use, but have also amended their original lawsuit to include allegations Suno ripped audio off YouTube in violation of the technical protection measures put in place by the video platform. Which, they argue, violates the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, meaning Suno accessed the music it used for training in an unlawful way.
That’s important because in an earlier AI copyright case involving Anthropic, the judge said the fair use defence fails if the AI company sources its training materials from illegal sources. Needless to say, Suno denies any of its ripping of content from YouTube was unlawful.
The illegal stream-ripping allegation also means the labels are trying to claim additional damages of $2500 for each time Suno circumvented a YouTube technical protection measure in addition to damages for copyright infringement.
Although Team Suno reckon that’s not a legitimate claim, on the basis it wasn’t the majors that were “injured” by the allegedly unlawful stream-ripping. Presumably because it’s YouTube’s technical protection measures that were allegedly circumvented.
If this case ever gets to trial, we can expect lots of tedious technical discussions about how YouTube’s technical protection measures work, what copyright law actually says about circumventing those measures, and who can claim damages.
But, while the lawyers continue to disparage the music industry’s legal claims in court, Suno boss Mickey presumably hopes Universal and Sony - and the other companies and creators suing his business - will eventually join that family of friendly “industry partners”. We shall see.