UMG, Sony Hit Suno With New Copyright Lawsuit Days After AI Model Launch

Universal Music Group and Sony Music have filed a new copyright lawsuit against Suno just days after the AI music company launched its latest model with licensed music from Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe.

Filed Friday in Massachusetts federal court, the complaint accuses Suno of infringing more than 60,000 sound recordings while developing its technology and argues that its newly released V6 model remains connected to the same training practices challenged in an earlier lawsuit.

UMG and Sony call V6 the “fruit of the same poisoned tree,” rejecting Suno’s effort to present the new model as a fresh start. Suno launched V6 on Sept. 9 and promoted its licensing partnerships as evidence that AI companies and the music industry could move forward together.

Warner settled its portion of the original copyright case against Suno last year and entered a licensing agreement with the company. BMG and Believe have since struck deals of their own, while UMG and Sony continue pursuing claims over Suno’s earlier training methods.

Friday’s complaint alleges Suno used outputs and user interactions from previous models while developing V6. UMG and Sony argue those earlier systems were trained on copyrighted recordings without permission, allowing the alleged infringement to carry into the new model even as Suno began using licensed material.

“V6 is not a fresh start,” the labels state in the filing, accusing Suno of continuing its unauthorized use of copyrighted recordings through a different development process.

Suno has maintained that training generative AI on copyrighted music can qualify as fair use. Its latest licensing agreements have now become part of UMG and Sony’s challenge to that defense, with the labels arguing that the deals demonstrate an active market for licensing recordings for AI development.

Their complaint says Suno “cannot credibly deny the existence of a market in which it is now a repeat, paying participant.”

Suno executives have described the licensing partnerships more broadly, presenting them as commercial agreements intended to create new products, revenue streams and opportunities for artists rather than an admission that licenses were legally required for earlier training.

The new filing also leans on public statements from Suno co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman. UMG and Sony cite comments about using prior user interactions to develop V6, along with remarks in which Shulman questioned how much people enjoy the time and effort required to make music.

Label attorneys argue those statements underscore a business model that depends on recordings created through years of human work while using AI to reduce the effort required to produce new music.

Beyond V6, the lawsuit accuses Suno of copying 60,202 identified recordings while developing earlier versions of its technology. UMG and Sony also claim the company circumvented technological protections to obtain music from YouTube, adding a separate theory of liability to the new case.

The filing follows an August ruling that prevented the labels from adding a large group of newly identified recordings to their original 2024 lawsuit because doing so could disrupt the existing litigation schedule. The judge left UMG and Sony free to pursue those allegations in a separate case, leading to Friday’s filing.

Warner is absent from the new lawsuit after resolving its claims and partnering with Suno. Its agreement helped pave the way for V6, leaving the AI company simultaneously working with some major music rights holders while continuing to fight UMG and Sony over how its earlier technology was built.

Both copyright cases remain pending in Massachusetts federal court as Suno rolls out V6 and expands its licensing relationships across the music industry.