In response to a recent lawsuit filed by major labels under the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against music software startups Udio and Suno, Suno admitted to training its AI model using copyrighted songs. The music AI startup however argues that training an AI model on copyrighted music is “fair use”
Suno asserted in a Thursday court document, that intellectual property laws are designed to prevent monopolizing a form of artistic expression. “Our intellectual property laws have always been carefully calibrated to avoid allowing anyone to monopolize a form of artistic expression, whether a sonnet or a pop song.” The startup emphasized that while “IP rights can attach to a particular recorded rendition of a song in one of those genres or styles” they do not extend to the genre or style itself.
While Suno admits that training its model from data on the open internet indeed contains copyrighted materials, some of which are owned by major record labels, the company’s CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman said in a blog post published the same day as the filing that it’s the same thing as a “kid writing their rock songs after listening to the genre — or a teacher or a journalist reviewing existing materials to draw new insights”
“Learning is not infringing. It never has been, and it is not now,” Shulman added.
The AI-powered music-making tool also went ahead and accused the world’s largest record labels of hiding behind copyright lawsuits to fend off competition from music written by generative AI adding that “the Plaintiffs in this lawsuit seek to shut Suno down”
“They frame their concern as one about “copies” of their recordings made in the process of developing the technology —that is, copies never heard or seen by anyone, made solely to analyze the sonic and stylistic patterns of the universe of pre-existing musical expression.” the court filing reads in part. “But what the major record labels don’t want is competition. Where Suno sees musicians, teachers, and everyday people using a new tool to create original music, the labels see a threat to their market share”
In a June 24 press statement made in coordination with the filing, the 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,” further adding that “But we can only succeed if developers are willing to work together with us. Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”
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