Warner Music Group Settles AI Music Lawsuit, Launches Joint Venture

Warner Music Group (WMG) has entered a significant artificial intelligence (AI) music partnership with the technology start-up Suno. This collaboration follows a settlement reached after a lawsuit WMG filed against Suno last year. The agreement allows users to create AI-generated music utilizing the voices, names, and likenesses of participating artists.

Details of the Settlement

The partnership will enable users to generate original music through Suno’s platform. Warner Music represents renowned artists, including Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and Ed Sheeran. The company initiated legal action alongside competitors like Sony Music, targeting Suno and another platform named Udio for their AI-generated content.

AI Music Platform Features

• Suno has approximately 100 million users and was established two years ago.
• The new AI models will be launched in 2026, replacing the existing platform.
• Users will need to pay for audio downloads, but free tier songs can still be played and shared.

Warner Music hailed the collaboration as a “first-of-its-kind partnership,” enabling novel opportunities in music creation while ensuring artists receive compensation. The company emphasized that artists and songwriters will maintain control over how their identities and works are integrated into new AI-generated music.

Context of Legal Challenges

The settlement effectively resolves ongoing litigation between the involved parties. WMG, along with Universal Music Group and Sony Music, accused Suno and Udio of profiting from reproducing existing music. They claimed these platforms generated tracks comparable to those created by real artists, a situation they labeled as “wholesale theft.”

This legal confrontation arose following a public outcry from approximately 200 artists, including Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj, who expressed concerns about the “predatory” use of AI in the music industry. Supporters of generative AI argue that machine learning is akin to human learning, where knowledge is derived from previous works.