Two companies that provide generative music services have been sued by several major record companies and the Recording Industry Association of America.
The lawsuit alleges that both Udio and Suno “massively” “trained” their generative AI models using music owned by the labels. Verge.
Both companies allow users to generate music tracks using a variety of keywords and prompts, allowing tracks to be created in a wide range of musical styles, with or without vocals or lyrics, in the same way that text and image generators generate text and images through user prompts.
While the use of artificial intelligence technology is spurring legislation to protect people from its misuse, it is also providing healthy revenue streams for some companies, such as Nvidia, whose development of powerful chips last week made it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies.
The lawsuit, filed by the RIAA and a group representing music labels including Universal Music Group, Warner Records and Sony Music Entertainment, alleges that the companies used copyrighted music to “train” their models, feeding different styles and genres into the program so it could mimic them. The RIAA is seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each song used, plus other costs.
“The music community is embracing AI, and we’re already working to partner with responsible developers to build sustainable AI tools that put human creativity at the center, with artists and songwriters in the driver’s seat,” RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glaser said in a press release. “But we can’t succeed unless developers are willing to collaborate with us. Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for profit without consent or compensation are holding back the promise of truly transformative AI for us all.”
AI companies have been reluctant to reveal what data they use in their generative models, leading to legislation being enacted to force companies to disclose any data or suggestions that use copyrighted material.
“These are clear cases of copyright infringement involving the unauthorized copying of recordings on a large scale,” said RIAA Chief Legal Officer Ken Doroshow. “Rather than placing their services on a sound and lawful footing, Suno and Udio are attempting to cover up the full extent of their infringement. These lawsuits are necessary to reinforce the most fundamental rules of responsible, ethical and lawful development of generative AI systems and to put an end to Suno and Udio’s blatant infringement.”
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Mike Schulman, CEO of Sanno, said: Verge The company’s service is designed to “generate entirely new output, rather than memorizing and repeating existing content,” and users cannot generate music using prompts that name specific artists.
Artists like Drake and Taylor Swift have taken steps to remove or block AI music based on their work. Drake called an AI track that recreated his voice “the final straw,” but later used AI to recreate the voices of Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur to help create a track “dissing” fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar. The two have had a feud since the 2010s.
