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Warner Music Group has announced a partnership with AI tech company Suno, which it sued last year \u2013 find out more below.<\/p>\n
Last year, Warner and fellow major music labels Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group filed lawsuits against Suno<\/a> and another AI company Udio for copyright violations of \u201can almost unimaginable scale\u201d.<\/p>\n Suno is a company based in Massachusetts, which emerged in 2023 and claimed last year that over 10million people had already used it to create AI-assisted music. It operates on a subscription basis declared it raised $125million (\u00a398.4m) from investors.<\/p>\n Per a Pitchfork<\/em> report<\/a>, Warner has signed a new licensing deal with Suno, which settles last year\u2019s lawsuit. Additionally, Suno has now acquired concert listing platform Songkick from Warner as part of the deal.<\/p>\n The deal has reportedly been designed to introduce a licensed model into Suno\u2019s offerings, making it such that users can pay to download songs that were made using AI. Pitchfork<\/em> also reports that the deal ensures artists and songwriters who opt into AI deals with Warner and Suno will be compensated fairly, and will retain \u201cfull control\u201d of their music, likeness and other copyright details, while also overseeing how AI uses their likeness.<\/p>\n As a result, Suno\u2019s current liberal models are being phased out in favour of \u201cnew, more advanced and licensed models\u201d. Meanwhile, UMG\u2019s and SME\u2019s litigations against Suno and Udio will proceed.<\/p>\n The partnership comes shortly after all three major labels signed a licensing deal with AI startup platform <\/a>Klay, making it the first AI brand to be utilised by all three industry giants. The newly signed agreements \u201cestablish terms on which Klay will help further evolve music experiences for fans, leveraging the potential of AI, while fully respecting the rights of artists, songwriters, and rightsholders\u201d.<\/p>\n The AI music startup also claims that it \u201cis not a prompt-based meme generation engine,\u201d but instead operates as a \u201cnew subscription product that will uplift great artists and celebrate their craft\u201d and seeks to \u201cenhance human creativity\u201d rather than replace it.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, it was reported that a new study found that 97 per cent of people \u201ccan\u2019t tell the difference\u201d between real and AI music<\/a>. A\u00a0\u201cfirst-of-its-kind\u201d survey<\/a>\u00a0asked around 9,000 people from eight different countries around the world, to listen to three tracks to determine which was fully AI-generated.<\/p>\n The stats come during a period of continued controversy for AI technology in the music industry, with a recent study sharing the stark warning that\u00a0people working in music are likely to lose a quarter of their income to Artificial Intelligence over the next four years.<\/a><\/p>\n In September,\u00a0Spotify confirmed that it was cracking down on AI by removing 75million \u201cspammy tracks\u201d and targeting impersonators<\/a>. This followed a report claiming that\u00a0AI-generated songs were being uploaded to dead musicians\u2019 Spotify profiles without permission<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n