{"id":2323928,"date":"2026-03-11T23:17:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2323928"},"modified":"2026-03-11T23:17:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:17:51","slug":"is-the-ai-startup-musics-biggest-nightmare-or-greatest-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/is-the-ai-startup-musics-biggest-nightmare-or-greatest-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the AI Startup Music&#8217;s Biggest Nightmare or Greatest Hope?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Some music executives start their day<\/strong> hoping to sign the next great pop star, land a No.\u00a01 on the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/charts\/hot-100\/\">Billboard Hot\u00a0100<\/a> or sell out a stadium tour. But Paul Sinclair has a different aspiration: \u201cEvery day I wake up and I\u2019m like, \u2018Don\u2019t ruin music,\u2019\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSinclair has spent decades working in the industry, primarily for Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records, at the intersection of recorded music and tech. After exiting his post as Atlantic GM\/executive vp in 2025, he found himself consulting for a new artificial intelligence music startup, Suno, which had quickly become the most controversial company in music since Spotify\u2019s launch 15 years ago. It\u2019s arguably even more controversial than that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMany have compared Suno, and the rise of generative AI music in general, to Napster\u2019s launch at the turn of the century, which upended album sales and led to the darkest financial decade in recorded-music history. Suno could disrupt music consumption, like Napster and Spotify once did. But it\u2019s also doing something different: disrupting the sacred act of creation itself.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"heading larva \/\/   a-font-secondary-fancy-xl   \">\n\t\t<strong><em>One of Suno CEO\/co-founder Mikey Shulman\u2019s interviews for this story has been released as an episode of <\/em>On the Record<em>, <\/em>Billboard<em>\u2018s music business podcast. It is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/billboardontherecord?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAadnHuXfEEFk1XZHK08yB2Dszh9oXNUyPwbfBfIQkbRkY380ZYJlsrCOXhxYWg_aem_is352278YwHEO6hUFEi4_A\">available now<\/a> on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.<\/em><\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"injected-related-story \/\/ lrv-u-align-items-center u-align-items-flex-start@mobile-max  lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column@mobile-max u-width-710@desktop lrv-u-margin-lr-auto lrv-u-margin-tb-1 u-margin-b-250@mobile-max u-margin-t-275@mobile-max u-margin-t-250@desktop u-margin-b-250@desktop u-margin-lr-n1@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-1 lrv-u-border-color-brand-secondary-dark lrv-u-border-t-1 lrv-u-padding-tb-1  lrv-u-padding-tb-1@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-r-1@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-l-00@mobile-max u-grid-gap-18@desktop u-grid-gap-0@mobile-max\">\n<h3 id=\"title-of-a-story\" class=\"c-title  a-article-related-module-title a-article-related-module-title--color-brand-primary a-font-accent-xl u-font-weight-800 u-letter-spacing-0179 u-line-height-normal lrv-u-color-grey-dark bb-pro-related-stories-label lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<div class=\"injected-related-story-wrapper lrv-u-flex lrv-u-justify-content-space-between  a-children-border-vertical a-children-border--grey a-children-border-width-050\">\n<div class=\"o-card  lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"o-card__image-wrap lrv-u-flex-shrink-0 u-width-191 u-width-150@mobile-max\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-b-00@mobile-max u-width-130px@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-b-00@mobile-max\">\n\t\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/suno-2-million-paid-subscribers-300m-arr-revenue\/\" class=\"c-lazy-image__link lrv-a-unstyle-link\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"a-crop-6x4 a-crop-3x2@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSinclair became Suno\u2019s chief music officer last July and sees his skeptical eye as a selling point. \u201cTruly, every single day I\u2019m conflicted,\u201d he says. \u201cThis s\u2013t is complicated\u00a0\u2026 I want to make sure there\u2019s whole future generations of the beauty of art and music and the ability to build careers around it.\u201d He mentions his daughter, who aspires to enter the music business in the not-so-distant future: \u201cI really want her to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tResearch from French streaming service Deezer suggests that 97% of people cannot differentiate between AI and human-generated music, and of the now-60,000 fully AI-generated tracks delivered to the service daily, a Deezer representative says the \u201cvast majority\u201d are flagged as being created with Suno specifically. According to an unpublished company pitch deck <em>Billboard<\/em> obtained in November, Suno generates 7\u00a0million songs a day, which equates to an entire Spotify catalog\u2019s worth of music every two weeks \u2014 and the songs are sounding uncannily similar to those made the old-fashioned way. With that deck, Suno recently raised $250\u00a0million in Series\u00a0C funding, a figure nearly unheard of in music tech that further cemented it as the clear front-runner in AI music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tNaturally, many musicians see Suno and other generative AI music companies as an existential threat \u2014 and for some of them, it could be. Some uses for the technology, beyond silly novelty songs or co-writing, could include creating vocals, producing demos and replacing stock or production music, all tasks that have previously required paying working-class musicians. In 2024, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/production-libraries-licensing-ai-companies-threaten-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for a <em>Billboard<\/em> story<\/a> about how AI could threaten the production music business, I spoke to Henry Phipps, an aspiring film composer and production music-maker who had also briefly worked in AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cVery few people aspire to be production library composers long term,\u201d he explained, but \u201cit is a way into [the music business] to survive, eat and pay rent and work toward projects that are more creatively fulfilling.\u201d He said then that he believed AI music could augment, but not entirely replace, the compositions of blockbuster film scorers \u2014 but it might \u201ccut off the bottom rungs of the ladder\u201d for young upstarts like him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe following year, Phipps started working at Suno. Now, he is one of dozens of musically inclined employees the AI company has hired, and he acts as a product manager and liaison with the growing class of professional musicians who use the platform. Phipps has become a favorite among those pros, in part because he\u2019s also a musician and because he monitors the company\u2019s VIP program, a private group of thousands of top music-makers who get early access to new products and offer the company feedback. Employees at Suno tell me this exclusive group includes some of the biggest talents in the world \u2014 but add that they can\u2019t tell me exactly who.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOver the course of a month, I met with executives at Suno several times to better understand the company \u2014 and to decide for myself whether it is deserving of the boogeyman reputation it\u2019s taken on to some in the music business. As part of this reporting, I was invited to join the generative AI music company at one of their songwriting camps during Grammy week. As with the VIP program, I wasn\u2019t allowed to say who was there or where it was. In an email laying out the ground rules, the company\u2019s publicist suggested I \u201cjust refer to it as a studio in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI found a few producers at the camp who were willing to share their names, though, including Timbaland, Gino the Ghost and Om\u2019Mas Keith \u2014 the lattermost of whom spearheaded the camp with Suno. Keith is a Grammy-winning record producer who has worked with Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu and Jay-Z, and he welcomed me into the studio to see what he had been working on with his colleagues. \u201cThis is a music creation camp. I wanted to bring over every great musician I know for this,\u201d he said, gesturing to the dozen or so musicians in the crowded room, where everyone was chattering excitedly. As a few Suno employees schmoozed with engineers at the massive mixing board, Keith pointed out what each musician at the session excels at: One was a sought-after session drummer, another a platinum-selling record producer, another a top violinist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThis is all about human involvement; even the prompting is democratic. We do it together,\u201d Keith said. I joked about whether I could get a courtesy credit for being in the room. \u201cNo, you didn\u2019t contribute to the prompt. It starts there. You got to be careful who you prompt around,\u201d Keith replied in a serious tone. \u201cThese are some of the best musicians in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   aligncenter size-large aligncenter lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:100%; max-width:1024px;\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-t-125 u-padding-b-10 u-margin-t-26@mobile-max lrv-u-display-inline-block lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((683\/1024)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/suno-execs-group-cr-jimmy-fontaine-billboard-1800.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"From left: Suno executives Philip Castro, Paul Sinclair, Mikey Shulman, Martin Camacho, Brinn Sanders and Georg Kucsko.\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/suno-execs-group-cr-jimmy-fontaine-billboard-1800.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/suno-execs-group-cr-jimmy-fontaine-billboard-1800.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/suno-execs-group-cr-jimmy-fontaine-billboard-1800.jpg?resize=681,454 681w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 100vw\" height=\"683\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column a-font-accent-xs lrv-u-color-black u-margin-t-n4px lrv-u-padding-lr-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-b-1 u-font-size-11 u-line-height-19px u-word-spacing-n0156px u-letter-spacing-0026 u-padding-b-0625@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">From left: Suno executives Philip Castro, Sinclair, Shulman, Martin Camacho, Brinn Sanders and Georg Kucsko.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"u-letter-spacing-0094 lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-font-size-10 u-margin-t-2px\">Jimmy Fontaine<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhile I sat on the studio\u2019s couch with Keith, I witnessed a song come to life. In 30 minutes, what he said started with a prompt and some lyrics became a master recording just as good, if not better, than the scores of pitch songs I\u2019ve heard in my years as a music publishing reporter. But interestingly, by the end, what I hear is approximately 90% human-recorded. The only Suno piece left was the vocals, which I was told would also eventually be rerecorded too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs several other professional musicians who use Suno tell me, this camp\u2019s approach to AI is a common one: prompting the model dozens of times with original lyrics to reach a song idea that sparks their interest. Then, Keith and his co-writers re-\u00adcreate the Suno song stem by stem, adding in their own flourishes and subtracting bits that they don\u2019t like. This is partly due to, Keith whispered to me, the fact that while Suno-created music may sound good, it still isn\u2019t perfect, studio-quality audio. It\u2019s also because these music pros simply enjoy molding the platform\u2019s initial output into their own. Optimistically, this approach makes Suno a writing companion that encourages and accelerates human creativity. Cynically, it\u2019s a way to use AI-generated ideas without disclosing the use of an AI model. Sitting there, I wondered how many songs released in the last few years were made this exact way without anyone knowing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAround this time, Mikey Shulman, the 39-year-old co-founder and CEO of Suno, walked into the room from outside, where he\u2019d been shaking hands with a mix of record-label executives, Suno employees and venture capitalists who, like me, had all come to watch the camp. With his white T-shirt, unbuttoned oxford, athleisure pants and nondescript sneakers, Shulman looks like your typical tech founder. Arms crossed over his chest, he listened to the song, bobbed his head and surveyed the room contentedly. Nearly everyone turned to say hello to him with a big smile. I couldn\u2019t help but wonder how he felt at that moment: Like a god, surveying his own creation? Like Dr. Frankenstein beholding his monster? Or was this just like the buzz that comes from writing a great song?<\/p>\n<hr class=\"separator larva \/\/ lrv-u-border-t-1 lrv-u-margin-l-00 u-width-135 lrv-u-margin-tb-00 u-width-100p  u-border-t-4\"\/>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>The dawn of music\u2019s AI age<\/strong> didn\u2019t arrive with a big bang \u2014 it stumbled into being, by accident, at a kitchen table in Cambridge, Mass. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t exactly, you know, the proverbial three guys in a garage thing,\u201d Shulman jokes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn January 2022, Shulman and his co-founders, Georg Kucsko, Martin Camacho and Keenan Freyberg, had just left their jobs at Kensho, an AI business tool company acquired by S&amp;P Global in 2018, and were pursuing a new startup together that would help navigate and analyze music libraries and catalogs using AI. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even think it was possible to generate music like [we can now],\u201d Shulman explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tStill, excited by the developments in AI image rendering, the foursome \u2014 all hobbyist musicians as well as Ivy League-educated technologists \u2014 started staying up late to experiment with generative AI after finishing their other work. One day, the group legend goes, they created some \u201cvaguely passable sounds.\u201d \u201cThe first things that came out you would be very generous to call music,\u201d Shulman admits. The pet project quickly grew into an obsession for the group, leading them to abandon their original company idea and start what is now known as Suno (Hindi for \u201clisten\u201d) instead. \u201cWhy are we not doing the thing that we can\u2019t put down?\u201d Shulman recalls thinking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSuno was not the first company to generate music with AI, but it was likely the first to generate singing voices alongside instrumentals with a traditional verse-chorus structure \u2014 or simply put, a full song. \u201cNobody else could make songs, and there\u2019s something really special about a song. A song is a story, it\u2019s not background music,\u201d Shulman says. The team first launched the product on the messaging platform Discord in July 2023 \u2014 the same way that popular AI image model Midjourney was first launched \u2014 which allowed them to disseminate the model quicker and to Discord\u2019s built-in audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tImmediately, Suno found a fan base. The product wasn\u2019t anywhere near perfect, but it had promise. \u201cI remember at the beginning we didn\u2019t even have control over the genre, so the models would basically infer the genre from the lyrics,\u201d Shulman says. \u201cWe found people hacking their lyrics, adding in words like \u2018yo, yo, yo\u2019 at the beginning because they demanded that it came out as rap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAs Suno developed, the co-founders took on different roles at the company. \u201cMikey\u2019s the face; Martin\u2019s the soul, overseeing engineering and brand; and Georg is the mad scientist, the machine learning genius, the man behind the curtain,\u201d Sinclair tells me. The final founder, Freyberg, was the company\u2019s COO, but left months before Sinclair arrived in July 2025. \u201cHe wanted to do different things,\u201d Sinclair explains with a shrug.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   aligncenter size-large aligncenter lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:100%; max-width:819px;\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-t-125 u-padding-b-10 u-margin-t-26@mobile-max lrv-u-display-inline-block lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((1024\/819)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/feature-suno-billboard-bb3-mikey-shulman-simon-simard-1200.jpg?w=240\" alt=\"Mikey Shulman photographed on December 2, 2025, at Suno in Cambridge, Mass.\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/feature-suno-billboard-bb3-mikey-shulman-simon-simard-1200.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/feature-suno-billboard-bb3-mikey-shulman-simon-simard-1200.jpg?resize=240,300 240w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 100vw\" height=\"1024\" width=\"819\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column a-font-accent-xs lrv-u-color-black u-margin-t-n4px lrv-u-padding-lr-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-b-1 u-font-size-11 u-line-height-19px u-word-spacing-n0156px u-letter-spacing-0026 u-padding-b-0625@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">Shulman photographed on December 2, 2025, at Suno in Cambridge, Mass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"u-letter-spacing-0094 lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-font-size-10 u-margin-t-2px\">Simon Simard<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSuno also picked up early evangelists, like Timbaland, who preached that the company was a \u201cnew frontier\u201d for music and joined as an ambassador for the company in 2024. <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> added to the hype that year, calling it \u201cChatGPT for music.\u201d But around the same time, music business executives around the world began to worry about how Suno\u2019s model got so good so fast. Like ChatGPT, Suno was training on copyrighted material \u2014 their companies\u2019 songs \u2014 without consent or compensation. Suno was not yet talking about its training data, but one investor told <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>, \u201cHonestly, if we had deals with labels when this company got started, I probably wouldn\u2019t have invested in it.\u201d It felt suspicious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn Denmark, Koda, the local collection society for songwriters, composers and music publishers, launched an investigation. \u201cTo me, it was obvious what they were doing,\u201d Koda CEO Gorm Arildsen says. \u201cThat music had to come from somewhere, and we expected some of it to be ours.\u201d He instructed his full-time tech scout to try prompting Suno for Danish works in Koda\u2019s catalog. Suno has protections so that users cannot prompt songs to sound like specific artists, but Arildsen says \u201cto be honest, it was not that difficult to prompt one of our songs,\u201d which include hits by Aqua, M\u00d8 and contemporary Danish phenom Christopher; in the United Kingdom, Ed Newton-Rex, a musician and founder of nonprofit Fairly Trained who formerly worked as Stability AI\u2019s vp of audio, was performing his own tests, which he\u2019d ultimately publish to fanfare in <em>Music Business Worldwide<\/em>; in Germany, local collection society GEMA, which represents songs recorded by Lou Bega, Milli Vanilli and Alphaville, was doing the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe tried to quantify this impact, and then came to a stunning number,\u201d GEMA CEO Tobias Holzm\u00fcller tells me. \u201cUp to 950\u00a0million euros [about $1.1\u00a0billion] in Germany and France could be endangered in 2028 alone due to generative AI if we let it all happen without taking action.\u201d Its study also found that 27% of music creators\u2019 revenue will be at risk for the same reason by 2028. Holzm\u00fcller and Arildsen say they reached out to Suno to talk but neither received a reply. Eventually, both CEOs say, this prompted them to launch separate lawsuits against Suno. GEMA\u2019s was filed in January 2025 and Koda\u2019s in November 2025. Arildsen called the move \u201cthe largest theft in music history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBut Suno\u2019s biggest challenge so far has come from North America, where the major-label groups \u2014 Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music and Warner Music Group (WMG) \u2014 which also found ways to trick Suno into regenerating songs that sounded very much like those in their catalogs, specifically James Brown, Chuck Berry and Michael Bubl\u00e9. In a rare sign of camaraderie, the rivals teamed to launch a blockbuster $500\u00a0million copyright infringement lawsuit against Suno, as well as a near-identical suit against Udio, another significant AI music model on the market, in June 2024. The labels said that using their sound recordings to train Suno\u2019s model was infringement \u201cat an almost unimaginable scale\u201d and that Suno\u2019s resulting songs could \u201csaturate the market with machine-\u00adgenerated content that will directly compete with\u201d what the labels call \u201cgenuine sound recordings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSuno held the position taken by other AI companies before them: that it\u2019s \u201cfair use\u201d to train on copyrighted works. Shulman responded to the filing by saying \u201c[the majors have] reverted to their old lawyer-led playbook,\u201d likely a reference to the majors\u2019 past treatment of Napster and file-\u00adsharing, which many now view as a failure. Back then, Shulman spoke more like a provocative, move-fast-and-break-things tech founder. (One quote from a podcast interview during this period follows Shulman to this day: \u201cI don\u2019t think the majority of people enjoy the majority of time it takes to make music.\u201d He now says of that quote: \u201cI really wish I had chosen different words.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThese days, Shulman is much more subdued. \u201cI do have a lot of respect for music,\u201d he says. \u201cThe major labels are very important, but what we did is legal and so that\u2019s what we did.\u201d While he maintains his position about fair use, Suno did agree to a licensing deal and settlement with WMG in November, ending just WMG\u2019s portion of the major labels\u2019 lawsuit. As part of the deal, Suno agreed to retire its current model and launch a new one, sometime this year, that is only trained on licensed copyrights in which the owners opt-in to be part of its data set. Suno also agreed to limit the number of AI songs a user can download in a given month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt\u2019s a sign that, despite several high-profile law\u00adsuits that remain in its path, the stigma around Suno in the music business establishment could be fading. \u201cI don\u2019t think of what we did as a settlement,\u201d Shulman says. \u201cI think about this much more like a partnership\u00a0\u2026 It is much more long term.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"separator larva \/\/ lrv-u-border-t-1 lrv-u-margin-l-00 u-width-135 lrv-u-margin-tb-00 u-width-100p  u-border-t-4\"\/>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>\u201cI\u2019m looking for the Kanye of AI music designers,\u201d<\/strong> says Neil Jacobson, his eyes wide with excitement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cObviously, I hope he doesn\u2019t hate Jewish people\u2026 but what I mean is he\u2019s going to be brilliant and he won\u2019t apologize,\u201d the music executive continues. \u201cHe\u2019ll be like, \u2018Yeah, I created this new world, this whole new way of listening to music.\u2019\u00a0\u201d He pictures a day when his AI-driven talents pioneer virtual reality-native entertainment while his human artists continue to dominate in more traditional spaces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tJacobson, founder and CEO of management, label and publishing company Hallwood Media, is one of Suno\u2019s most outspoken evangelists and is the first music executive to publicly invest in it, through his fund Hallwood Ventures. In September, Jacobson made headlines for signing what he calls \u201cAI music designers\u201d \u2014 or the people who use generative AI to make music \u2014 to Hallwood, a first in the business, and he even scouted his new AI signee, imoliver, from Suno\u2019s streaming service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSince then, Jacobson has doubled down on AI-powered talent, signing Telisha \u201cNikki\u201d Jones, who created AI gospel persona Xania Monet, to what <em>Billboard<\/em> previously reported was a multimillion-dollar deal. He understands that his bullish AI views will likely lose him some clients (\u201cI have major issues with some of my artists who are really upset about my involvement in AI music, some of which I believe will leave me over [it] \u2014 it\u2019s heartbreaking\u201d), but he feels that the negative discourse over AI in music will eventually subside. More specifically, he calls this \u201cartistic fascism\u201d \u2014 a colorful way of saying that detractors are policing what art is and how art is made.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   aligncenter size-large aligncenter lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:100%; max-width:819px;\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-t-125 u-padding-b-10 u-margin-t-26@mobile-max lrv-u-display-inline-block lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((1024\/819)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Xania-Monet-2025-Talisha-Jones-billboard-1200.jpg?w=240\" alt=\"AI artist Xania Monet\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Xania-Monet-2025-Talisha-Jones-billboard-1200.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Xania-Monet-2025-Talisha-Jones-billboard-1200.jpg?resize=240,300 240w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 100vw\" height=\"1024\" width=\"819\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column a-font-accent-xs lrv-u-color-black u-margin-t-n4px lrv-u-padding-lr-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-b-1 u-font-size-11 u-line-height-19px u-word-spacing-n0156px u-letter-spacing-0026 u-padding-b-0625@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">AI artist Monet<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"u-letter-spacing-0094 lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-font-size-10 u-margin-t-2px\">Talisha Jones<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tNow, Monet\u2019s manager, Romel Murphy, is joining in with a company of his own called dai\u00a0+\u00a0drm (pronounced \u201cdaydream\u201d), a label joint venture through Create Music Group that will sign AI-powered talent, including Solomon Ray. Timbaland has also been building his own AI entertainment company, Stage Zero, which generates artists from scratch, including his first project, Tata, who was created with the help of Suno and other AI tools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThese so-called \u201cAI artists\u201d or \u201cAI music designers\u201d \u2014 everyone in the space seems to have a different name for them \u2014 some but not all of whom use Suno, have made an impact on the Spotify, <em>Billboard<\/em> and TikTok charts, and the broader discourse. The Velvet Sundown, for example, which is touted in Suno\u2019s investor pitch deck with the title \u201cSuno songs go viral off platform,\u201d ignited a debate around the future of music last summer after becoming an early viral example of a seemingly nonexistent band posting AI music on streaming services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDespite the commotion it caused, which was started by a concerned poster on Reddit, none of The Velvet Sundown\u2019s Suno-generated songs \u2014 faithful descendants of classic rock \u00e0\u00a0la Creedence Clearwater Revival and Buffalo Springfield \u2014 have more than 5\u00a0million plays on Spotify. Monet, who was also created using Suno, climbed to the top of <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/charts\/gospel-songs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hot Gospel Songs<\/a> chart, yet is far from cracking the Hot\u00a0100. Ray, a clean-cut AI persona constructed by MAGA rapper Christopher \u201cTopher\u201d Jermain Townsend, hit the top of the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/charts\/gospel-digital-song-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gospel Digital Song Sales<\/a> chart with the song \u201cFind Your Rest,\u201d but given downloads are an increasingly unpopular form of music consumption, the stat remains a niche measure of success. These milestones last year proved that a breakthrough from an AI-generated act is clearly possible \u2014 but to date, it is still yet to truly come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSome Suno supporters are not concerned with the inevitable rise of AI-driven competition. Timbaland says that people who use Suno to make songs in seconds don\u2019t threaten producers like himself who have \u201cdone the over 10,000 hours\u201d of mastery in his craft. Keith agrees. \u201cAs a lot of \u2018AI slop\u2019 enters the ecosystem, those with true artistry will be differentiated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tGino the Ghost, a writer-producer for Sabrina Carpenter, The Chainsmokers and Saweetie who was also at the songwriting camp, adds that he uses Suno \u201clike a more intuitive Splice,\u201d referring to the popular sample and sound library, and that he\u2019s \u201cnot worried\u201d about its implications for his career. \u201cThis isn\u2019t me being naive,\u201d he assures me. \u201cIt will never be good enough to get to that top, top, top level of writing and producing on its own.\u201d Still, he is concerned about the undeniable rise of quick-made slop: \u201cI\u2019m torn as someone who\u2019s a big proponent of songwriter rights and us being paid fairly. I\u2019m worried the royalty pool on Spotify is going to be diluted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThere\u2019s also a growing concern that the fan base for AI songs isn\u2019t even real. According to research from Deezer, up to 85% of streams on fully AI-\u00adgenerated songs on its site are flagged as artificial or fraudulent. In late February, several artist rights groups, including the Music Artists Coalition, sounded the alarm on this issue in an open letter titled \u201cSay No to Suno,\u201d raising concerns that \u201cSuno has, in effect, become a fraud-fodder factory on an industrial scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   aligncenter size-large aligncenter lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:100%; max-width:1024px;\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-t-125 u-padding-b-10 u-margin-t-26@mobile-max lrv-u-display-inline-block lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((683\/1024)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Solomon-Ray-2025-Christopher-Jermaine-Townsend-billboard-1800.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"AI artist Solomon Ray\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Solomon-Ray-2025-Christopher-Jermaine-Townsend-billboard-1800.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Solomon-Ray-2025-Christopher-Jermaine-Townsend-billboard-1800.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Solomon-Ray-2025-Christopher-Jermaine-Townsend-billboard-1800.jpg?resize=681,454 681w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 100vw\" height=\"683\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column a-font-accent-xs lrv-u-color-black u-margin-t-n4px lrv-u-padding-lr-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-b-1 u-font-size-11 u-line-height-19px u-word-spacing-n0156px u-letter-spacing-0026 u-padding-b-0625@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">AI artist Ray<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"u-letter-spacing-0094 lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-font-size-10 u-margin-t-2px\">Christopher Jermaine Townsend<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSpeaking to those at Suno or those who use it, I\u2019m often met with a mix of total enthusiasm, a little fear and some dark humor. Keith jokes about how one day we\u2019ll all be \u201cin a pod with fluid and hooked up to devices,\u201d and Jacobson sees a vision of the future like the popular dystopian novel <em>Ready Player One<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBut regardless of AI music\u2019s current popularity and the discourse around it, the number of AI-\u00adpowered songs on streaming services is growing fast and sparking fears about increased competition for human-made songs, which take much longer to create. To stop the flood, UMG has now taken a hard-line stance when negotiating with AI companies, saying that AI partners must instate a \u201cwalled garden\u201d to make it impossible for users to download AI music and take it elsewhere on the internet. When <em>Billboard<\/em> asked if that was why UMG had not yet settled with Suno, UMG chief digital officer\/executive vp Michael Nash said, \u201cIf I were to treat your question as a rhetorical one, then yes. It\u2019s kind of a hat-hanger in this discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShulman says that this \u201csomewhat black-and-white view of things lack[s] nuance. [It can] also really prevent a lot of innovation.\u201d As for whether Suno would ever become a closed environment, Shulman says, \u201cCompletely? I just think that\u2019s way smaller than it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"separator larva \/\/ lrv-u-border-t-1 lrv-u-margin-l-00 u-width-135 lrv-u-margin-tb-00 u-width-100p  u-border-t-4\"\/>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>The same day that I talk to Jacobson<\/strong> to get his take on the future of AI music, I also call Shulman to ask about his first-ever Grammy week, the famously exhausting run of nonstop parties and networking in the music business ahead of the actual awards ceremony.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cLast week was kind of an eye-opening moment,\u201d he says with a wide grin. \u201cI really felt a change in how excited and curious and optimistic people were in a way I hadn\u2019t felt before. I think there was a lot more acceptance, and a lot more public acceptance of it, which is a really new thing.\u201d He had been invited to WMG\u2019s Grammy party, among other events, for the first time \u2014 which felt like evidence that the establishment was ready to talk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSuno\u2019s stated vision of the future looks a little different from what it has inspired from its biggest fans. Suno is already working to create a \u201cverticalized\u201d service, as noted in the company pitch deck, incorporating a TikTok-like social media feed (Hooks, announced in December), a streaming service and a number of different music tools, to target, as Shulman puts it, anyone from \u201cGrammy winners to grandmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIs it really possible to get <em>everyone<\/em> to make music? Shulman thinks so. \u201cOur usage is showing that a hell of a lot of people, way more than anybody expected, want this,\u201d he says. The hope is to expand music-making as something more like a pastime, competing for the same hours as one spends scrolling on TikTok, playing video games or watching a movie. \u201cI think we\u2019ve reached peak scrolling,\u201d Shulman explains. \u201cPeople want to do something else.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   aligncenter size-large aligncenter lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:100%; max-width:1024px;\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-t-125 u-padding-b-10 u-margin-t-26@mobile-max lrv-u-display-inline-block lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((683\/1024)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/imoliver-press-cr-Julian-Matulich-1800.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"AI music designer imoliver\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/imoliver-press-cr-Julian-Matulich-1800.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/imoliver-press-cr-Julian-Matulich-1800.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/imoliver-press-cr-Julian-Matulich-1800.jpg?resize=681,454 681w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 100vw\" height=\"683\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column a-font-accent-xs lrv-u-color-black u-margin-t-n4px lrv-u-padding-lr-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-b-1 u-font-size-11 u-line-height-19px u-word-spacing-n0156px u-letter-spacing-0026 u-padding-b-0625@mobile-max\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">AI music designer imoliver<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"u-letter-spacing-0094 lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-font-size-10 u-margin-t-2px\">Julian Matulich<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt\u2019s a bold vision of the future, and if Shulman is right, Suno projects itself to reach $1\u00a0billion in revenue by 2028. \u201cWhen we talk about \u2018verticalizing\u2019 inside the company, it\u2019s not like we want to smush TikTok and Spotify together,\u201d Shulman tells me. \u201cThose two things already exist, and that is not going to reap a lot of benefits\u00a0\u2026 I\u2019m thinking, \u2018How do I make discovery way better than it is now?\u2019 Because we are able to do something no one else can do. [The point of Hooks] is to get you off of the feed, playing with content and remixing it. That\u2019s the kind of discovery that doesn\u2019t exist right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnd, he continues, Suno doesn\u2019t have a \u201cfixed pie mentality,\u201d like he thinks much of the music industry does, where \u201cif one thing wins, another has to lose.\u201d As Shulman explains, \u201cWe want to grow the pie and make the music industry even bigger.\u201d This thinking is, in part, what attracted Mike Mignano, partner at venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures, to the platform. He says his team \u201cdefinitely views [Suno\u2019s] technology as a market expander\u201d for music, even saying he sees Suno becoming \u201cthe most important company in music\u201d one day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tArmed with its impressive Series\u00a0C funding, licensing momentum and the growth of its music off-platform \u2014 not to mention Suno\u2019s recent recruitment of longtime Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota as its new chief commercial officer \u2014 Suno\u2019s total takeover of the music business can feel inevitable. But the most common question remains: Does everyone really want to make music?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSuno also faces the challenge that, due to differing views on \u201cwalled gardens,\u201d UMG, the world\u2019s biggest music company, may not reach a settlement with Suno before its deadline to retire its current model and to launch the new, fully licensed version later this year. Given musical copyrights are often split between a number of different songwriters and artists across multiple labels and publishers \u2014 and all rights holders must opt-in to the use for it to work \u2014 it\u2019s possible that Suno\u2019s agreement with WMG has put the platform in a tough position with a limited catalog of training data. When pressed about how many songs he needs to train the new model to produce quality results, Shulman is noncommittal: \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to say \u2014 more is always better. It\u2019s really hard to give definitive answers here. Whenever you change anything, some things get better and some things worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThere\u2019s also, of course, the various lawsuits still active against Suno from GEMA, Koda and the remaining majors \u2014 as well as a couple of class action lawsuits from independent songwriters. And while the path to becoming the de\u00a0facto AI music model has seemed increasingly clear for Suno (especially after its competitor Udio pivoted its offerings in November), now Google \u2014 a goliath in general AI development with nearly unlimited resources to burn \u2014 seems increasingly interested in entering the AI music race, acquiring ProducerAI and launching its latest version of its own AI music model, Lyria, as part of Gemini in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPlus, Suno\u2019s users are primarily 25- to 34-year-old men. Young people, Shulman admits, have \u201cgeneral apprehension around AI everywhere\u201d \u2014 a troubling trend, given that teens have historically been the music industry\u2019s greatest cultural drivers and consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI get so many questions from people in music\u00a0\u2026 and the questions are always like, \u2018Is AI going to end the world?\u2019\u00a0\u201d Shulman says. \u201cI happen to think it\u2019s not going to, but certainly Suno is not going to turn everybody into paper clips! That\u2019s not the domain we play, so I say, \u2018Why don\u2019t you try it? Most people like it when they try it.\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   aligncenter size-large aligncenter lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:100%; max-width:788px;\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image   lrv-u-margin-t-125 u-padding-b-10 u-margin-t-26@mobile-max lrv-u-display-inline-block lrv-u-width-100p\">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((1024\/788)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cover-suno-billboard-bb3-illustration-mark-harris-1500.jpg?w=231\" alt=\"Suno Billboard Cover March 7, 2026\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cover-suno-billboard-bb3-illustration-mark-harris-1500.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cover-suno-billboard-bb3-illustration-mark-harris-1500.jpg?resize=231,300 231w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 100vw\" height=\"1024\" width=\"788\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>This story appears in the March 7, 2026, issue of <\/em>Billboard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some music executives start their day hoping to sign the next great pop star, land a No.\u00a01 on the Billboard Hot\u00a0100 or sell out a stadium tour. But Paul Sinclair has a different aspiration: \u201cEvery day I wake up and I\u2019m like, \u2018Don\u2019t ruin music,\u2019\u201d he says with a laugh. Sinclair has spent decades working [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2323929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[380243,345215,317759,22008,379419,24751],"class_list":["post-2323928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-artifical-intelligence","tag-billboard-green","tag-cover-story","tag-magazine","tag-suno","tag-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Is-the-AI-Startup-Musics-Biggest-Nightmare-or-Greatest-Hope.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2323930,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323928\/revisions\/2323930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2323929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}