Musicians’ Union Sues Major Labels Over Artists’ Share of Suno & Udio Settlements

The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) has launched a lawsuit against Warner Music Group (WMG) and Universal Music Group (UMG), alleging that the benefits from their recent settlements with AI music generators Suno and Udio aren’t reaching musicians.

Backstory:

• UMG settled its AI lawsuit with Udio in October 2025 and announced a new joint venture with the company.

• WMG settled with Suno in November 2025 and entered a partnership with the AI organization.

• Along with Sony Music Group, the companies initially sued Suno and Udio in 2024, alleging they’d trained their AI music generators on thousands of songs without permission.

• Sony is yet to settle with either company.

The complaint:

• The AFM states that UMG and WMG have allegedly “failed and refused to provide compensation to musicians for the AI exploitation of recordings on which they worked or performed.”

• As per Digital Music News, the AFM says compensation is due to the creatives under its binding Sound Recording Labor Agreement (SRLA) with the majors.

• It says the SRLA covers AFM members’ contributions to recordings and, “via Article 21,” entitles members to compensation from any “new use” of the involved works.

The majors’ reply:

• A UMG representative, as per The Hollywood Reporter: “The AFM chose this route during our collective bargaining negotiations, and we will continue to work to resolve any issues through these negotiations, as we have in the past. We expect to continue our strong working relationship with the AFM built on mutual respect for the talented musicians in our industry.”

• A WMG representative, as per The Hollywood Reporter: “Warner Music Group is growing the value of music by establishing guardrails and architecting a healthy AI ecosystem on the behalf of artists everywhere. We are disappointed by the AFM’s unproductive action amid our ongoing negotiations. We look forward to resuming our negotiations as scheduled.”