Suno Introduces Audio Watermarking for AI-Generated Music Amid Legal Pressure

Suno hopes to go legit with watermarks for AI-generated music

The Internet is awash in AI content, and it's not always easy to tell it apart from genuine human creations. While images and videos are perhaps the most obvious type of AI slop, streaming music services like Spotify are also being inundated with AI-generated tunes. Suno is one of the most prolific sources of this AI music, but the company now says it's looking to clean up its act with watermarks and policy changes. In a blog post announcing the plans, Suno CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman says this is a necessary change to meet "emerging industry standards" for the labeling of AI content. Soon, the company will add watermarks to all audio outputs from its models, giving platforms the option to mark content as AI or block it entirely. Shulman doesn't say if Suno will rely on an in-house solution or a ready-made solution like Google's SynthID. Google recently began licensing SynthID to other companies. Google says the tech has been used to label 60,000 years' worth of audio generated by its Gemini models, plus more than 100 billion images and videos. Whatever technology Suno uses, the idea is that every track it generates will have an invisible code embedded in the waveform. A detector trained on that signature will be able to identify it, allowing Suno's partners to combat "fraud and misuse." Shulman notes the watermarking tech Suno intends to use is "durable and resistant to tampering" without affecting quality. However, no system is perfect. If someone does manage to break Suno's watermarks, all the tracks produced to that point could be stripped of their AI labels. And this doesn't solve the problem of proliferating AI music. There are other platforms that don't have plans for watermarking, and open models could allow people to generate unlabeled AI music on their own hardware. That's a problem with all efforts to watermark AI content. Going legit While much of the visual media generated by AI has flown under the legal radar, the music industry is famously litigious. Suno is being sued by Universal and Sony for copyright infringement in the US, and a German court recently found the company was violating the country's music licensing laws. Both cases could lead to hefty fines. Suno is also in hot water as a result of a hack in late 2025 that showed it scraped content from YouTube, Deezer, and others to train its models. Suno did not disclose the hack, which may have included the private information of millions of users. It's being sued in Massachusetts over that. None of that is a good look, so it's no surprise Suno is looking for ways to change the conversation. The company is essentially positioning itself as a tool for musicians and personal projects, not as a way to generate unlimited slop for Spotify. Shulman stresses in the blog that Suno supports the artistic process, noting that AI technology "can't replace the human experiences, emotions, and imperfections that make music meaningful." That, he claims, is why Suno already has rules designed to guard against misuse. For example, Suno doesn't allow users to include specific artists or songs in their prompts, and it partners with companies like Musixmatch to ensure people don't upload copyrighted content to use as a base for their generative compositions. Suno has also strengthened prohibitions against this kind of misuse in an update to its usage policy. More changes are coming, too. Last year, Suno agreed to limit downloads in a settlement with Warner Music Group. Suno is still working out the specifics, but Shulman says most users won't be affected. However, limits on downloads, along with watermarking tracks, will apparently help to limit "large-scale abuse." Whether these changes will save Suno from its legal woes remains to be seen.

Amid legal battles, Suno says it will start watermarking songs

Suno, the service that allows users to create AI-generated songs, today announced new tools to mark tracks made on its platform, limit downloads, and update community guidelines to prevent copycat songs. The changes come as Suno faces numerous lawsuits from labels and artist bodies. In a blog post, co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman shared core principles and said that the platform wants to promote original creation while enabling more people to make music with its AI tools. One of the key points of contention involved users uploading AI-generated songs on other streaming platforms and gaming the system to earn revenue. Suno said that now it will use audio watermarking and fingerprinting to prevent misuse on other streaming platforms. It's not clear if Suno will use an existing system like Google's Synth ID or adopt a new one, and the company did not say when contacted by TechCrunch about this. The startup also signed an agreement with lyrics provider Musixmatch to use its Sentinal system for copyright detection, the blog post said. "These tools are designed to be durable and resistant to tampering, without affecting the listening experience. They are also not intended to pass judgment on whether a song is good, meaningful, or sufficiently human," said Shulman in the blog. "Ultimately, we believe it should be up to artists and platforms to decide what they want to disclose. Our role is to build tools that give them transparency options and make it easier to collaborate across the industry." The company added that it plans to add a new download policy to bar mass distribution on streaming platforms, but the company declined to provide details. Suno has also changed its community guidelines to explicitly prohibit "deceptive audio presented as real" and "using a real person's voice or likeness without permission" to prevent copycats. The company, which raised $400 million in a Series D funding round in June, is fighting legal battles on many fronts. The startup is in a lawsuit with the Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Group in a case co-ordinated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Late last month, a German court ruled in favor of a government-mandated licensing agency, GEMA, and said Suno was breaking copyright rules. Separately, 404 Media reported that Suno experienced a data breach in November 2025, which revealed that the platform scraped YouTube, Deezer, and Genius to train its models. Later, data breach notification service Have I Been Pwned said that the data breach affected 55 million users. The startup now faces a class action lawsuit in Massachusetts, which alleges that the company overlooked security measures to focus on profit.

Suno Plans New Tools to Make AI-Generated Music More Transparent. Is It Enough? - CNET

Dashia is the consumer insights editor for CNET.... Read full bio The AI song-generation platform Suno plans to make it easier to tell if a tune you hear was made by its tools. Watermarks and fingerprinting were two items the company suggested in a blog post on Thursday that it intends to implement in a bid to "build the world's best platform for music creation while contributing to a healthy and growing music ecosystem." The watermarking and fingerprinting effort remains vague, and Suno said it also plans to introduce a new downloads policy that limits mass distribution on streaming platforms. Suno is one of many AI music generators that let you create and download songs using AI models. However, Suno's source code was hacked in July, and the findings raise eyebrows. The code showed that Suno's AI was trained by scraping music and lyrics from platforms such as YouTube Music and Genius, according to 404 Media. Suno also recently faced legal troubles from music groups, including Sony and Universal, for mass copyright infringement in 2024. Most streaming platforms don't yet ban AI-generated music outright. But platforms like Spotify are already implementing policies to crack down on deepfakes, require disclosures about AI-generated music and allow artists to file complaints. Apple Music has Transparency Tags to spot and identify AI-generated music. And Deezer doesn't include AI-generated music in recommendations, and doesn't pay royalties for AI tracks. But are Suno's efforts enough for artists, streaming platforms and recording companies? Representatives for Suno, Deezer and Apple Music did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the blog post, Suno outlined a slew of changes to protect artists and their work. It says names aren't used in training metadata in order to help people create original songs that aren't inspired by any other artists. Suno also says it doesn't allow prompts that specify artists or copyrighted songs. Instead, it focuses on musical characteristics. This list goes on, like Suno cracking down on any other potential attempts to copy artists by using third-party technology to screen audio files and lyrics for unauthorized use. Updates to its community guidelines clarify which activities are (and aren't) prohibited on Suno. And its Trust & Safety team will continue to review and investigate reports of violations and take action. However, some parts remain vague. The blog post also mentioned new transparency tools to identify a Suno-generated song on other platforms. Then there's new audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology to flag fraud and misuse, and the company plans to introduce a new downloads policy that limits mass distribution on streaming platforms. Suno has not yet shared any details on the downloads policy, or the watermarking and fingerprinting technology.

Suno shares plans to combat spammy AI music

Suno announced plans to implement a new watermarking technology and download policy to limit the spread of spammy AI tracks and increase transparency. In a lengthy blog post, CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman laid out the company's principles and the next steps for the company as it seeks legitimacy. The company is rolling out new transparency tools, along with new watermarking and fingerprinting tech. Shulman says it aligns with "emerging industry standards" that will make it easier to identify Suno-generated content. He also says the company is aiming to partner with "distribution platforms on combatting fraud and misuse." Last year, the company also announced it would change its download policy following a settlement with Warner Music Group (WMG), and in the wake of a similar settlement between WMG and Udio that ended downloads of outputs from that platform entirely. The company hasn't offered specifics yet, but at the time it announced the plan last year, it said that downloads would be limited to paying subscribers, and users would be limited to a certain number of downloads each month. Shulman's post repeatedly mentions the company's dedication to transparency, respect for rights holders, and the importance of human-made art. But he's also careful to say it's not Suno's place to "pass judgment" on the value of individual pieces of art, and that it's ultimately up to artists and platforms to decide whether they want to disclose the use of AI tools. Suno didn't immediately respond to a request for specifics about the new policies and technology.

Suno is adding audio watermarks so AI-generated songs are more easily identifiable - Engadget

Suno will also set new download limits to prevent mass distribution of songs and combat fraud. The AI music generator Suno has announced that it will start watermarking songs created on its platform, amid a number of legal battles and increasing pressure from the music industry. Suno co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman said in a blog post that the platform's new "transparency tools" will include some kind of labelling system that shows people if a song has been generated on Suno when it appears on another platform. Details are vague, but Shulman said his company will adopt "new audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology" that helps it resist AI fraud more effectively. It sounds similar in principle to Google's SynthID, which allows AI-generated content to be traced back to its origin even after editing or compression has taken place, but it's not clear exactly how Suno's solution will work. Shulman did add that he and his company believe that it should ultimately be at the discretion of artists and platforms to decide whether they communicate when something was made with AI. As well as the new watermarking system, Suno will also set download limits designed to tackle the mass distribution of AI songs on streaming platforms. Again, detail on this is light in the company statement, but it comes in the wake of a coalition of major music labels, including the big three of Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, calling for AI slop tracks that are flooding music charts across the world to be disqualified from entering them. Alleged copyright infringement was the basis for a number of lawsuits against AI music generation companies including Suno and Udio over the last few years, who were accused of training models on music they didn't have permission to use on a "massive scale." In November last year, Warner Music reached an agreement with Suno that allows the company to license WMG artists' music and their likenesses, ending what had been an ongoing legal dispute. Suno insists that it does not use artist names in its training metadata and won't allow users to use specific artists or copyrighted songs when entering a prompt, but just this week a German court sided with the licensing agency Gema on accusations of copyright violation against the platform. As reported by Reuters, the Munich-based court ruled that Suno trained its systems on protected music that it didn't have the rights to use, a decision Suno disagreed with and may yet appeal. In its blog post published today, Suno said it's working with content recognition and data companies Audible Magic and Musixmatch, as well as other third-party companies, to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse.

Suno will watermark its AI songs as lawsuits mount

Suno spent two years making it effortless to generate songs by the million. Now, with lawsuits stacking up, the AI music leader says it will watermark those songs and limit how many you can download. The plans landed in a blog post on Thursday from Suno's co-founder and chief executive, Mikey Shulman. The company will add audio watermarking and fingerprinting. It will roll out transparency tools so other platforms can spot its tracks. And it will bring in a new downloads policy to curb mass distribution. The Verge first reported the move. Shulman framed it around a set of principles. Chief among them: "great music is made by people." The watermarks, he wrote, are "durable and resistant to tampering." They will not judge "whether a song is good, meaningful, or sufficiently human," he added. Whether to label a track as AI should be the call of artists and platforms, not Suno. What is actually changing Every track Suno makes would carry an invisible signature in the waveform. Partner platforms could then flag or block it. Suno did not say whether it will build its own system or license one. Google's SynthID is the obvious option, and OpenAI and Nvidia already use it. Suno also named the lyrics firm Musixmatch to screen outputs for copyrighted material. The downloads change targets abuse most directly. Suno will limit mass distribution to streaming services. It says the shift will spare "the vast majority" of users. But it left out the detail that matters most: how many downloads, and at what price. The watermarking has no firm date beyond "the coming weeks." Why now The timing is not subtle. Universal and Sony are suing Suno over its training data. Last week a German court ruled it broke the country's licensing rules. A 2025 hack exposed something worse. That hack showed Suno had scraped YouTube, Deezer, and Genius to train its models. It leaked data on a reported 55 million users. A class action followed. So the move reads less like an ethical awakening than a bid for legitimacy. Ars Technica called it Suno "going legit." The company raised $400m in June at a $5.4bn valuation. Now it wants to look like a tool for musicians, not a slop machine for fraud. The fraud is real. One man recently pleaded guilty to using AI songs and bots to pull in more than $8m in fake streaming royalties. The catch Watermarks are not a cure. Break the signature, as Ars notes, and every track made until then can lose its label. Rival generators do not watermark at all. Open models let anyone make unlabelled music on their own machine. The move also aligns neatly with the EU's new AI labelling rules. Those make disclosure less a choice than a coming requirement. Streaming services from Spotify to Deezer, and platforms like Snapchat, have spent months trying to hold back the AI tide their own openness let in. For its first years, generative AI measured success by how much it could make. Suno's week points to a new test: how much of that flood a company can hold back. Ideally, before a court makes it.

AI Music Startup Suno Is Adding a Watermark to Songs as Legal Troubles Pile Up

AI music startup Suno announced several major changes Thursday aimed at cracking down on the misuse of songs generated on its platform. Co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman wrote in a blog post that the company plans to introduce audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology that will make it easier for music platforms to identify and trace songs created with Suno. Suno will also introduce a new download policy intended to limit users' ability to mass-distribute songs on streaming platforms. The changes appear to primarily target schemes in which users generate hundreds and sometimes even thousands of AI songs, upload them to streaming services, and then use bots to repeatedly play the tracks to collect fraudulent royalties. Earlier this year, a North Carolina man pleaded guilty to using hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and billions of fake streams to collect more than $8 million in royalties. Suno also updated its community guidelines to make clearer that it prohibits scams, spam, fake engagement, presenting deceptive audio as authentic, recreations of existing songs, and the use of copyrighted material or a real person's voice or likeness without permission. Still, the company is trying to walk a fine line between aggressively combating fraud and calling all AI-generated music outright slop. "These tools are designed to be durable and resistant to tampering, without affecting the listening experience," wrote Shulman. "They are also not intended to pass judgment on whether a song is good, meaningful, or sufficiently human." He added that it should be up to artists and platforms to decide whether to disclose that a song was made using AI. In a somewhat ironic example of Suno's efforts to assert that AI music isn't all slop, the company recently announced plans to let users make copies of their AI-generated songs on vinyl. The new safeguards arrive as Suno faces legal battles across several fronts. Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment are suing the company, accusing it of using copyrighted recordings without permission to train its AI models. Warner Music Group, which was initially part of the lawsuit, settled with Suno last year and reached an agreement allowing participating artists and songwriters to opt into approving the use of their music and likeness in AI-generated songs. Just last week, a court in Germany ruled that Suno violated the copyrights of musicians represented by GEMA, the country's music-licensing agency. Suno disputed the ruling and is considering its options, including an appeal. The company is separately facing a proposed class-action lawsuit in Massachusetts over a data breach that allegedly exposed the personal information of more than 55 million users. 404 Media also reported that the breach revealed that Suno scraped YouTube, Deezer, Genius, and other online sources to train its models. Suno did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Spotify itself appears to have gone all-in on AI. The music streaming platform and Universal recently announced a tool that will allow users to create AI-generated covers and remixes using music from participating artists.

A German court says AI music maker Suno broke copyright, a first for Europe

The Munich Regional Court ruled that Suno trained on GEMA-represented songs without permission and reproduced them, in one of Europe's first binding decisions on AI-generated music. German court has ruled that Suno, one of the world's most popular AI music generators, broke copyright law by training on protected songs without permission, in one of Europe's first binding decisions on AI-made music. The Munich Regional Court found on 31 July that Suno had no right to process the work of artists represented by GEMA, Germany's state-mandated licensing body, after evidence that its system had memorised and reproduced their songs. The case cuts to the heart of how such tools are built, given earlier reporting that Suno was trained on more than two million scraped songs. GEMA's argument was visual and hard to dismiss. In court, it played side-by-side comparisons of Suno's output and famous tracks, arguing the AI reproduced recognisable melodies, harmonies, and rhythms from the originals. The examples were pointed. Among the songs GEMA used were "Forever Young," "Mambo No. 5," and "Daddy Cool," recognisable hits whose fingerprints, it said, turned up in Suno's generations. The court agreed on the core point. It found that Suno had memorised and reproduced six GEMA-represented songs during training, and that doing so without a licence infringed the rights holders. The remedy sets up a bigger bill. Suno must hand over information on the revenue it earned from the infringement so that damages can be calculated, a figure the court has yet to quantify. The ruling bites immediately. Under German law, a first-instance judgment can be enforced even while an appeal is pending, which means GEMA could pursue injunctions against Suno's European operations without waiting years. That is what makes it a landmark. Lawyers see it as one of the first binding European rulings on whether AI music training needs permission, a question that has hung over the industry since generators went mainstream. Suno fought the case hard. The company filed fresh legal arguments in the weeks before the verdict and even tried to have the presiding judge removed, an unusually aggressive posture that did not pay off. The stakes for Suno are large. The Massachusetts start-up was valued at around $5.4bn in a funding round earlier this year, a figure built on exactly the kind of model the court has now found unlawful in Germany. It is not the only AI music firm in the dock. Rival Udio faces its own suits, and Sony has sued Udio a second time over 30,000 songs, seeking billions, as labels move from warning shots to full litigation. Some of that pressure has already produced deals. Both Suno and Udio have struck settlements with Warner Music, and Udio has reached terms with Universal, signs that licensing, not just courtrooms, may shape the endgame. The industry is testing a parallel path too. Spotify and Universal have signed a licensing deal for AI covers and remixes, an attempt to build a legal market for generative music rather than fight every use in court. The Munich court has form on this. The same venue ruled last year that OpenAI's ChatGPT had infringed by reproducing German song lyrics, making the city an unlikely centre of gravity for AI-copyright law. For GEMA, the logic is simple. It argues that training on protected music requires the permission of copyright owners, full stop, and the ruling gives that position its firmest legal backing yet. The wider fight is far from settled. The decision is appealable, US cases are moving on their own timelines, and the music industry is juggling AI deals and fraud crises all at once, but Europe now has a precedent. What Suno does next will signal a lot. It can appeal, settle, or restrict its European service, and each choice will tell other AI firms how costly it is to build first and license later.

'Great music is made by people' -- Suno, the biggest AI music company, is finally trying to solve a problem its own success helped create

Suno, the most popular AI music creation tool, spent years making it incredibly easy to generate music. Now it's introducing download limits, watermarking and fingerprinting to stop people flooding streaming services with AI slop. That suggests something important to me: even the companies building generative AI are starting to realize unlimited AI creation comes with unintended consequences. Suno CEO, Mikey Shulman, shared a blog post about the company's principles for building the future of music responsibly. He says "AI should help people create something new, not imitate someone else's work. This philosophy has guided how we've built our models and platform from the start." Great music is made by people In a section titled "Our Principles", Shulman says that "great music is made by people". The principles themselves aren't new. What's new is that Suno is now dedicating significant engineering effort to limiting abuse rather than simply enabling creation. In his blog post Shulman writes "We will soon introduce a new downloads policy designed to limit the ability to mass distribute songs on streaming platforms, while preserving the professional, creative, and personal ways people use Suno. These changes won't affect the vast majority of our users, but they will make large-scale abuse much harder." Schulman continues: "In the coming weeks, we will also be adopting new audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology so we can partner even more closely with distribution platforms on combatting fraud and misuse." That evolution fits the broader trend we've been covering from the music streaming services like Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, and Qobuz, who have started to fight back against AI-generated music flooding their platforms. Managing the consequences Streaming giant Tidal has published a comprehensive AI policy with the strapline "Promoting Fairness and Economic Empowerment in the Era of AI-Generated Music". Tidal will identify it, tag it and crucially, not pay any streaming royalties for it. Spotfiy has introduced measures to prevent fraudulent streams and AI impersonation . Deezer announced that over half of all new daily uploads to its site are AI -- up from 44% in April and just over 30% at the end of last year. It launched a free site to scan your playlists for AI in June. Qobuz has announced that it is taking a human-first approach to its recommendations and "developing detection and monitoring systems to identify AI-generated content and fraudulent streaming patterns." This announcement from Suno feels more significant than another AI company publishing a set of principles. It marks a shift in priorities. For the first few years of generative AI, success was measured by how much content these systems could produce. Now it looks like success is being measured by how effectively companies can prevent that content from overwhelming everything else. The AI music industry is moving from maximizing generation to managing the consequences of generation, and it's about time. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

AI Music Company Suno Loses Copyright Case in Germany

Suno said it disagrees with the ruling and is considering an appeal. A German court has ruled against AI music startup Suno in a copyright lawsuit brought by music rights organization GEMA. According to a report by Variety, the Munich Regional Court found that Suno violated copyright law by using music from GEMA's catalog to train its AI models and by reproducing protected works without a license. The ruling requires AI companies to obtain licenses for the commercial use of GEMA's repertoire, covering both AI model training and the generation of music. The lawsuit centered on six songs, including "Daddy Cool," "Rasputin," "Forever Young," and "Mambo No. 5." GEMA accused Suno Suno of training its AI on copyrighted songs without permission. In a statement, Suno said it built its platform to help people create new music, not reproduce existing songs. The company said the ruling is based on a misunderstanding of how its technology works and that it is considering its legal options. "Our tools give people the ability to create new songs, whether they are top artists, product developers, songwriters using our tools in their workflows or everyday music fans," Suno said in a statement. "From the beginning, we trained our models to create new songs, not reproduce existing ones, and built protections into our platform. We disagree with today's ruling -- which rests on a fundamental mischaracterization of how Suno's technology works, how it is used and how U.S. law applies -- and are evaluating all available options, including an appeal." The decision comes about eight months after GEMA won a separate copyright case against OpenAI, in which a Munich court ruled that ChatGPT unlawfully reproduced copyrighted song lyrics. The ruling also comes as Suno faces mounting legal scrutiny over how it built its AI models. Earlier this month, leaked source code showed the company's training data included more than 113,000 hours of YouTube Music, 62,000 hours from Pond5, and 12,000 hours from Deezer, supporting claims by the music industry that Suno trained its AI on copyrighted recordings without permission, allegations that Suno continues to fight in court.

German court rules AI music generator Suno broke copyright rules

"This ruling sends a powerful international message: creativity has value, and creators' rights must be respected in the age of artificial intelligence." AI music generator Suno, which allows users to generate songs via prompts, has lost a copyright infringement lawsuit to German licensing agency GEMA. In the January 2025 filing, GEMA argued that Suno was using songs to train its AI models without obtaining any licenses or paying the artists. The decision, handed down on Friday 31 July by the Munich Regional Court, ruled that Suno's use of the songs was in breach of both the German and US copyright law, and that the AI platform unlawfully obtained, processed and reproduced music that was represented by GEMA. "Today, the Chamber made one thing crystal clear: AI models built on stolen intellectual property have no protection under the law," said GEMA's CEO Dr Tobias Holzmüller after the legal victory (via Reuters). "AI service providers must pay for licenses rather than helping themselves to our members' works free of charge. Today, the court's verdict has significantly strengthened Europe's position as a cultural centre." GEMA Board chairman Dr Ralf Weigand shared: "This ruling sends a powerful international message: creativity has value, and creators' rights must be respected in the age of artificial intelligence." He added: "Through this decision, GEMA has set an important precedent not only for its more than 100,000 members, but for creators worldwide. The fact that we can now enforce our rights in countries including the United States gives creators hope and confidence at a time of profound technological transformation." Suno will need to pay damages to GEMA. The sum has not yet been confirmed. Previously, Warner, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group filed lawsuits against Suno and Udio for copyright violations. Surprisingly, the 2024 filing led to Warner settling the lawsuit by signing a licensing deal with Suno.

Suno's Copyright Fix: Smart Strategy or Legal Damage Control?

Suno also announced three concrete changes: the rollout of audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology so that Suno-generated tracks can be identified when shared on other platforms, updated community guidelines with tiered enforcement covering warnings, temporary suspensions, permanent bans, and referrals to authorities, and a new download policy designed to prevent mass distribution of AI-generated songs on streaming services. The company also announced a partnership with lyrics provider Musixmatch to integrate its Sentinel copyright detection system. The announcement raises as many questions as it answers. Suno has not confirmed which watermarking technology it will use, whether it will adopt an existing system like or build its own nor provided a specific rollout timeline beyond "coming weeks." Shulman explicitly framed the tools as giving artists and platforms the option to disclose AI origins rather than mandating disclosure, describing Suno's role as providing transparency options rather than enforcing them. Critics in the music industry have pointed out that none of these measures address the fundamental question of whether Suno's training datasets included copyrighted material without authorisation, the core allegation in the ongoing RIAA lawsuit. Meanwhile, Suno's source code was hacked in July, and the findings raise eyebrows. The code showed that Suno's AI was trained by scraping music and lyrics from platforms such as and Genius, according to reports. Suno also recently faced legal troubles from music groups, including Sony and Universal, for mass copyright infringement in 2024.

German court rules AI music firm Suno broke copyright rules

MUNICH, July 31 (Reuters) - A German court ruled on Friday that AI music firm Suno has violated copyrights and has to provide information on illicit revenue, part of a wider legal battle by artists and publishers against technology firms. The Munich-based regional court said Suno did not have the right to process the music of artists represented by Germany's state-mandated licensing agency Gema. According to the verdict, which can be appealed before a higher court, Suno will have to pay damages that have yet to be quantified. Massachusetts-based Suno, valued at $5.4 billion in a June funding round, allows users to generate songs via prompts. In various litigation proceedings, AI music companies have been accused of failing to compensate composers. More than 1,800 artists are supporting class-action lawsuits against Suno and peer Udio. Last year, Udio agreed with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to settle copyright cases, while Suno reached a settlement with WMG. (Reporting by Joern Poltz in Munich, writing by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Miranda Murray)