Suno and major music labels reportedly clash over AI music sharing

The AI-powered musicmaker Suno is struggling to reach licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. That’s according to a report from the Financial Times, which says both sides can’t agree on whether users should be able to share the AI-generated songs they create.

“Universal wants AI-generated tracks to stay inside apps such as Suno and not spread freely across the internet. Suno, however, wants users to be able to share and distribute those songs more widely,” the Financial Times reports. Suno, which lets users create AI-generated music with a text prompt, became the subject of a massive copyright lawsuit from Universal, Sony, and Warner Records in 2024.

Suno allows users to download AI-generated music from the app, raising concerns about the spread of fake music and AI rip-offs of existing songs. Earlier this year, a coalition of artist representatives signed an open letter titled “Say No to Suno,” arguing that the platform “built its business on our backs, scraping the world’s cultural output without permission, then competing against the very works exploited.”

Warner dropped its lawsuit against Suno last year after the two reached a licensing agreement, allowing Suno users to use the voices, names, likenesses, images, and compositions of artists who opt into the program. And while Universal has struck a deal with the AI music-making tool, Udio, its deal bars users from downloading their AI-generated creations from the app.