Following Guilty Verdict, Suno Commits to “Building the Future of Music Responsibly”

Today, Suno, the largest AI music company, published a blog post detailing its operating principles in the wake of its first loss in a major court battle. A few days ago, GEMA, the German music rightsholder, won a copyright infringement case in Munich’s regional court, ruling that Suno used protected material to train its AI model without permission.

The details:

• The blog suggests that the principles shared have been guiding the company since the beginning. Read it in full here.

• There is no mention of the recent guilty verdict.

• Such principles are as follows:

“Great Music is Made by People”:

• “Technology can unlock new ways to create, but it can’t replace the human experiences, emotions, and imperfections that make music meaningful.”

• Here, Suno alludes to writing camps it hosts in order to see how its products and models can best aid artists.

“Technology Opens New Possibilities for Creatives”:

• “We believe our tools should open new ways for artists to create, reach fans and build their careers.”

• This section mentions that Suno is developing models "in partnership with the music industry."

• It also discusses initiatives to support the industry such as its artist development program Spark.

• This program generated controversy over a part of its agreement titled “Good Vibes Only,” which essentially requires participants not to say anything negative about Suno or the program.

• The company has since updated the title of the section in the terms to “Mutual Respect,” which includes the following language:

• “We ask that you not make any statements or representations, either directly or indirectly, whether orally or in writing, that portray Suno (and its personnel), the Spark program, or Spark participants in a negative light.”

"AI Should Enable Originality, Not Imitation":

• "AI should help people create something new, not imitate someone else’s work. This philosophy has guided how we’ve built our models and platform from the start."

• This section refers to measures for rejecting imitation, such as how the Suno platform rejects the use of existing artist names in prompts.

• There is no mention of the audio Suno gathered to train its models.

"More People Creating Music Should Strengthen the Ecosystem":

• “While we don’t think it’s our role to decide what has artistic value, we have an important responsibility to make it harder to abuse AI tools in ways that undermine a healthy music ecosystem.”

• This section mentions “a new downloads policy” designed to make mass dissemination more difficult.

• No details about the policy are provided.

"New Tools for Artists and Platforms":

• Here, Suno discusses new identification systems for music made on its platform, but makes it clear that everything in this regard will be optional.

• It mentions “transparency tools” and “new audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology.”

• The section then says “we believe it should be up to artists and platforms to decide what they want to disclose.”

"Clearer Community Guidelines":

• “Our Community Guidelines have always reflected clear positions on harmful behavior. Today, we’re updating them to make our rules easier to understand and to be more explicit about activities that have no place on Suno.”

• While the section addresses rules within Suno, there is no discussion of how Suno as a company engages with the rest of the industry, such as how it gathered audio to train its models.

"Looking ahead":

• “The best answers will come from artists, songwriters, labels, publishers, platforms, and technology companies all working together.”