Universal Music Group (UMG) and other major record labels are in a discovery dispute with the defendant, Suno, over whether the labels hold the rights to use their recordings to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. The disagreement came up during a roughly 80-minute discovery conference, in a case where the majors’ initial complaint is now 29 months old.
Subpoenas directed at non-parties are also in circulation.
Fair use and market dilution#
The central question in the case is fair use, and in particular whether AI audio is diluting the market for and value of music. That issue shapes much of the dispute.
Licensing contracts and AI training#
Jonathan Dworkin, UMG’s executive vice president (EVP) of digital business development and strategy, is set to supplement his earlier deposition in writing. The supplement will focus on AI detection and tracking disclosures provided by Spotify.
Britt Lovejoy of Latham & Watkins summed up the issue:
“As you can expect, license agreements with artists, some of which, in Sony’s case, go back to the 1980s, don’t anticipate AI. They don’t say whether or not Sony or UMG could use the works for AI training. So there’s a little bit of contract interpretation that’s going on over at these companies to determine whether or not they have the rights to include those works in the AI training dataset.”
Counsel for the non-Warner majors pushed back, arguing that “no determination that has been affirmatively made that our clients lack or do not possess AI training rights in the recordings that are included in their catalog[s].”
Suno’s position and other discovery matters#
Suno argued that it is uncertain whether a viable AI training market exists, and that it could not have harmed a market that does not exist. The discussion also covered questions about artist opt-ins.
- Suno is preparing to turn over copies of its agreements with Believe and BMG, but not documents about the negotiations behind them.
- The parties have reached “at least conceptual theoretical resolution” on discovery disputes involving performance and financial data.
- A related joint report is due in one week.
Concessions the majors made to obtain AI-related anti-dilution provisions in their digital service provider (DSP) licensing agreements also came up during the conference. Discussions are ongoing, and further depositions of DSP executives could follow.
