Suno announced its v6 line of AI (artificial intelligence) music models on Wednesday (Sept. 9), describing them as its first built “in partnership with the music industry.” The company says the models are the fastest it has released to date and the first to provide compensation to its music industry partners.
The rollout follows a series of agreements over the past year with Warner Music Group, BMG and, as of Tuesday (Sept. 8), Believe. Suno still faces ongoing litigation from Universal Music Group, Sony Music, SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) and Koda. It also recently lost a copyright infringement lawsuit in Germany filed by GEMA, the country’s collection society, over illegal training of its model on copyrighted works.
As part of the v6 rollout, Suno said it has retired all past models and is working toward future products that would let users take participating songs from artists and remix, sample or otherwise make derivatives of them. No debut date has been set. Those products would place Suno in the AI music remixing race alongside:
- Spotify
- Udio
- KLAY
- Hook
What “partnership” means#
For Warner Music Group, the arrangement means Suno’s new model is “fully licensed.” In an internal memo Wednesday, CEO Robert Kyncl said Suno will shut down its previous model, which was trained on millions of songs without permission. Money from the new licensed model will flow to participating industry partners and, ultimately, to their artists and songwriters, he said.
That would be a significant shift in the legal fight over using unlicensed copyrighted works as training inputs for AI models. If Warner’s interpretation holds, Suno has largely conceded that fight. But Suno does not use the word “license.” The company said the new model was developed “in partnership with the music industry,” but it has not specified what each partner provided.
Suno chief product officer Jack Brody said in an interview that the money flowing to the music industry would not be in exchange for training. That position is consistent with Suno’s ongoing litigation against Universal Music Group and Sony Music over the same issue.
It remains unclear what Suno is paying Warner, BMG and Believe for. Possible explanations include an agreement not to sue, the right to eventually remix specific recordings, or the ability to use the names and likenesses of particular artists who opt in. Those questions remain unanswered for now.
Licensing language and legal risk#
Suno’s avoidance of the word “license” may be tied to its active litigation with Universal and Sony. In that copyright lawsuit, Suno argues that the fair use principle allows it to train on unlicensed music without paying for it. Experts have said that paying companies such as Warner and BMG to license music for training could undercut that argument in court. Suno is likely being careful with its public wording because a press release could become evidence.
A separate element of the announcement concerned future products. Suno said it plans to “launch[ing] new products that [will] open up revenue opportunities across the music ecosystem,” including models that can remix and sample popular songs. Those products would require labels, publishers and artists to participate, though it is not yet clear how they would generate revenue. The deals with Warner, BMG and Believe satisfy the word “partnership,” but explicit artist opt-in would be needed for much more in the future.
Which catalogs are involved#
Industry sources say Warner Music Group has licensed a subset of its catalog for the training of v6 and that it is up to Suno to clear any additional rights needed for those works. The sources also note that Suno is contractually obligated under its deal with Warner to ensure its new models are fully licensed and trained on fully licensed content, unless a work is in the public domain.
A source close to the matter confirms that BMG will ask its artists and songwriters to opt in where Suno needs rights, whether for AI training or for other permissions needed in future products.
Believe said in its press release about the Suno deal on Tuesday (Sept. 8) that “participating Believe and TuneCore artists and labels will be included in the new music models that Suno is launching.” That suggests some level of choice for the thousands of artists and labels that run through Believe and TuneCore.
Training data and next steps#
Suno CEO Mikey Shulman said the training data is a mix of “partner data” and “user interactions.” He did not specify what “partner data” refers to for the initial release.
