Presley rightsholders and the publisher of many of Eminem’s recordings have filed separate federal lawsuits in the United States against Suno, an AI (artificial intelligence) music generator. Each case adds to the legal challenges the company already faces.
Presley Rightsholders Target Voice and Name#
A group that includes Authentic Brands Group, Raleigh Music Publishing and others filed the Presley case in the Northern District of California. It accuses Suno of copyright infringement and of exploiting Presley’s identity whenever users cite his name to generate new songs.
In a 51-page filing, the plaintiffs said Suno violated Tennessee’s Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, a 2024 law that bars AI companies from cloning singers’ voices. They allege the platform lets users generate tracks that mirror Presley’s “rich vocal timbre” without permission.
Eight Mile Style Targets Eminem Recordings#
Eight Mile Style, a limited liability company (LLC) that controls hundreds of Eminem recordings, including “Lose Yourself,” “Without Me” and “The Real Slim Shady,” filed its own case. It alleges Suno infringed its copyright by allowing users to generate songs and lyrics that mirror the rapper’s tracks.
Eminem is not individually participating in the suit. A representative for the rapper did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Attorneys Richard Busch, Mark Block, David Niemierzycki and Andrew Davis represent both the Presley group and Eight Mile Style. They argued that Suno has “mechanically encoded itself with artists’ identities, hard-work, creativity, and time, and harnessed them all for a consistent conveyor belt of cold hard cash.” Both complaints include examples of generated songs that allegedly sounded like Presley or reproduced Eminem’s lyrics.
In the Presley case, the attorneys wrote:
“The next Elvis won’t pick up a guitar. Suno’s ravenous race to the bottom aims to make human creativity obsolete, coldly replicating without a license in seconds what takes years to learn, struggle with, maintain, and endlessly attempt to make better and perfect, begging the question from future generations who would attempt to start what is already an arduous, uncertain, and not always lucrative creative pursuit: ‘What’s the point?’”
Isbell Suit Raises Similar Claims#
The Presley case mirrors a lawsuit brought by Americana singer Jason Isbell and other musicians, who sought class-action status. In that filing, they allege Suno’s platform allows users to exploit their identities. Suno has denied those allegations.
The plaintiffs in the Isbell-led suit argued that users could bypass Suno’s restrictions with specific prompts. Instead of naming an artist, the prompts requested tracks that invoked their “tone and phrasing,” using real names instead of stage names, as in the case of the rapper Common, or adding spaces between the letters of names, among other methods.
Attorney Alan D. Rose wrote in that lawsuit: “This lawsuit seeks to recover the value of those misappropriated identities and to stop their ongoing commercial exploitation.” Suno denied the allegations and told the court there was “nothing unlawful” about asking for a song in the vein of an artist.
The Presley case is the latest test of whether an artist or their estate can use the legal system to protect their name, image and likeness from use by an AI company without explicit authorization or compensation. Concern over AI models and deepfakes has grown since generative technology spread through the public sphere. Suno did not respond to an immediate request for comment on the Presley case.
Earlier Cases Against Anthropic and Meta#
The new suits follow similar cases filed by both parties against Anthropic and Meta. Authentic Brands Group joined other Presley publishers last month in a federal lawsuit against Anthropic, claiming its AI chatbot Claude was improperly trained on 274 of Presley’s songs, including “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” “Run On” and “Farther Along.” The group demanded a total of $48.6 million in damages and that Anthropic stop infringing the rights holders’ copyright. Anthropic has denied the allegations.
Eight Mile Style sued Meta for roughly $110 million in June, claiming it infringed its copyright by storing 243 of the Grammy-winning rapper’s Eight Mile-owned recordings across its Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram libraries without permission. Meta attorneys called the suit “fanciful” in court in June, but a federal judge in Michigan ruled the case could move into discovery.
The Suno cases add to existing lawsuits from the independent music publisher Round Hill Music and the major labels Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Warner Music Group settled its case against Suno last year. Deals with Warner Music Group and the music publishers BMG and Believe helped power Suno’s label-backed model “v6,” released in September.
Universal Music Group and Sony Music sued over that model, calling it “the fruit of the same poisoned tree.”
Suno’s Funding Unaffected#
The lawsuits have not affected Suno’s market value. The company raised $400 million in a funding round in June at a $5.4 billion valuation.
