After the license agreement with Udio, Warner Music Group (WMG) also did this. reached an agreement with Suno This will allow the platform to license the music and images of its artists and end the ongoing dispute with the music label. WMG was previously one of several record labels suing Udio and Suno for alleged infringement of copyrighted works on a “massive scale”.
Under the terms of the agreement, artists and songwriters will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices and compositions are used in new AI-generated music, WMG explained in the press release announcing the announcement. WMG isn’t giving details on how it will work for musicians included in the deal, but it sounds like participation will be voluntary and not everything will be shared by default. This reflects the shareholder structure in the company’s deal with Udio.
“AI becomes artist-friendly when it follows our principles: adhering to licensed templates, reflecting the value of music on and off the platform, and giving artists and songwriters the ability to use their name, image, likeness, voice and compositions in new AI songs,” said Robert Kyncl, CEO of WMG.
Suno will also make changes to its AI music platform, perhaps as a condition of the new partnership. According to WMG, Suno will launch “new, more advanced and licensed models” in 2026, after which the current models will be obsolete. The company will also limit music downloads to paid accounts. “Going forward, songs created in the free tier will no longer be downloadable, but will be playable and shareable. Users of the paid tier will have limited monthly download limits and the option to pay for additional downloads,” WMG explains.
In a strange twist to the partnership, Suno is also acquiring WMG football song Platform for concert discovery. The company plans to continue operations and WMG says that “the combination of Suno and Songkick will create new potential to deepen the bond between artists and fans.” An app to find nearby concerts doesn’t fit in with Suno’s existing music creation tools, but perhaps hints that the company wants to offer more social features in the future.
Prior to this settlement, Suno had openly admitted that she used “pretty much any reasonable quality music file available on the Internet” to train her AI model under the auspices of fair use. It seems like an obvious admission of copyright infringement, but Warner Music Group is apparently happier with the settlements they reached than they could have gotten from their lawsuit. The company is reportedly one of several music groups looking to strike a similar deal with YouTube.