Suno and Udio vs. the major labels: what the AI music copyright battle means for musicians
What started as a coordinated lawsuit from the three biggest music companies in the world has, by mid-2026, become something more complicated. Suno and Udio are at the centre of an ongoing legal and commercial battle with Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music, and Warner Music Group over AI training data, and the outcome is already changing what musicians can and cannot do with these tools.
How the Suno and Udio lawsuits started
On June 24, 2024, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed parallel lawsuits against Suno and Udio on behalf of all three major labels. The core allegation: both platforms had ingested decades of copyrighted recordings without permission to train their AI models. Potential statutory damages ran up to $150,000 per infringed work. Suno and Udio initially defended on fair use grounds, arguing that training on recordings was a transformative process that produced new, non-infringing tools.
However, the legal picture shifted significantly in September 2025 when the labels added a harder charge: that the companies had obtained training data by stream-ripping from YouTube, potentially violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In April 2026, Udio admitted that it had used tools including YT-DLP to download audio from YouTube for training purposes. That admission increased the legal exposure of both startups considerably, as DMCA circumvention carries its own statutory penalties, separate from copyright infringement.
Where things stand in 2026
The major labels have not moved in lockstep. Warner Music Group settled with both Suno and Udio in November 2025, prioritising commercial relationships over continued litigation. Universal Music Group settled with Udio in October 2025 but has not reached an agreement with Suno. Sony Music has settled with neither platform and remains in active litigation with both. Sony’s case against Udio is scheduled for a status conference on May 29, 2026, which is expected to set the timeline for a fair-use ruling in the summer.
Negotiations between Suno, UMG, and Sony hit a reported impasse in April 2026. UMG and Sony are understood to be seeking equity stakes and higher per-stream royalty guarantees — terms that Suno has so far resisted. For context, Suno reported 2 million paying subscribers and $300 million in annual recurring revenue by February 2026, and is reportedly approaching a $5 billion valuation. That financial position gives the company leverage to sustain lengthy litigation.
The downloads saga: what changed for users
The most immediate consequence for anyone using these platforms is the change in what you can do with the music you generate. Following UMG’s settlement with Udio in October 2025, Udio disabled public song downloads. Users can still generate and remix within the platform, but exporting finished audio files is now gated or blocked entirely. UMG’s position, known internally as the “walled garden” model, is that AI-generated audio should power interactive experiences rather than flood streaming platforms with machine-made tracks.
Suno, by contrast, retained download functionality through its Warner settlement, though paid-tier requirements and monthly export caps were introduced. The two platforms now represent competing philosophies: Udio as an interactive remix tool under label-approved rules, Suno as a more open creative environment with increasing restrictions. As UMG’s Chief Digital Officer Michael Nash confirmed in early 2026, Suno’s refusal to adopt the walled garden model is a primary reason why UMG has not yet settled with the company.
Why musicians should pay attention
The access you currently have on either platform may not last. If the courts side with Sony on the DMCA stream-ripping claims, both companies could face a settlement that imposes far stricter export restrictions across the board. Additionally, a new platform called Klay Vision has emerged as the model Sony is championing: fully licensed from all three major labels plus independent label network Merlin and publisher Kobalt, with no training-data disputes. If that licensing-first approach becomes the industry standard, it could render the current Suno and Udio models unviable for professional use.
There is also a broader signal in the data. Deezer recently reported that 44% of daily uploads to its platform are now AI-generated, which is part of what is driving the major labels’ urgency. The summer 2026 fair-use ruling will be the most significant legal decision for AI music tools to date. Its outcome will affect every musician, producer, and DJ who uses these platforms to create.
