Suno and Udio Strike Deals with Labels: AI Music Enters the Licensing Arena
The dispute over training AI on others' music is shifting from lawsuits to licensing agreements — and that changes the rules for everyone who makes and sells tracks.
Following the recording industry's 2024 lawsuit alleging 'massive copyright infringement,' the situation began to shift by late 2025: Warner Music settled its dispute with Suno, and Universal settled with Udio. Sony Music has not yet reached a deal and is pursuing litigation.
What the Deals Change
Under the terms, Suno is building new models trained exclusively on licensed catalogs, while Udio is pivoting toward a 'walled' fan platform where generated content cannot be exported beyond its boundaries. Users will generally have to pay to download tracks — generation is no longer a free gray zone.
Not Everyone Is Satisfied
In June 2026, the American Federation of Musicians filed a lawsuit against the labels, claiming that members' recordings were included in AI deals without payment, attribution, or disclosure. The question of who owns the value of training data remains the central tension of the entire story.
