2 min read

Suno Announces New Round of Platform Upgrades

They come as rumours of a licensing deal with the major labels continue to swirl

Despite facing litigation from Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group over alleged copyright infringement, AI music-making platform Suno has continued to roll out new upgrades.

The upgrades:

- In a blog post, Suno heralded what it calls “a whole new level of creative control.”

- The upgraded Song Editor gives users the ability to reorder, rewrite and remake their track section by section, right from the waveform.

- They can split their track into 12 clean stems, ready to preview and download.

- Users can upload full songs up to eight minutes in length, be it a work in progress, a hummed melody or a text description of a sound, from which they can start working.

- Creative sliders enable users to choose how “weird”, structured or reference-driven their generations get.

Ongoing legal complications:

- Suno and its competitor Udio are facing lawsuits from the major labels, alleging copyright infringement in the AI training process.

- Earlier this week reports surfaced that a settlement may be near, with the majors in talks to license their recordings.

- Now the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that a key ask from the labels is Content ID-style fingerprinting technology, which would make it possible to monitor the particulars of how a song is used by the AI platforms, and therefore how much artists and labels should be paid.

- YouTube uses Content ID to identify music that’s been uploaded to the video platform, allowing rightsholders to claim revenue on ads served on the song regardless of whether the uploader had permission to post the track.

- The WSJ also claims the majors want to be “active participants in the music-related products that the AI companies release, including having a say in which products are developed and how they work.”

Despite facing litigation from Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group over alleged copyright infringement, AI music-making platform Suno has continued to roll out new upgrades.

The upgrades:

- In a blog post, Suno heralded what it calls “a whole new level of creative control.”

- The upgraded Song Editor gives users the ability to reorder, rewrite and remake their track section by section, right from the waveform.

- They can split their track into 12 clean stems, ready to preview and download.

- Users can upload full songs up to eight minutes in length, be it a work in progress, a hummed melody or a text description of a sound, from which they can start working.

- Creative sliders enable users to choose how “weird”, structured or reference-driven their generations get.

Ongoing legal complications:

- Suno and its competitor Udio are facing lawsuits from the major labels, alleging copyright infringement in the AI training process.

- Earlier this week reports surfaced that a settlement may be near, with the majors in talks to license their recordings.

- Now the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that a key ask from the labels is Content ID-style fingerprinting technology, which would make it possible to monitor the particulars of how a song is used by the AI platforms, and therefore how much artists and labels should be paid.

- YouTube uses Content ID to identify music that’s been uploaded to the video platform, allowing rightsholders to claim revenue on ads served on the song regardless of whether the uploader had permission to post the track.

- The WSJ also claims the majors want to be “active participants in the music-related products that the AI companies release, including having a say in which products are developed and how they work.”

Despite facing litigation from Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group over alleged copyright infringement, AI music-making platform Suno has continued to roll out new upgrades.

The upgrades:

- In a blog post, Suno heralded what it calls “a whole new level of creative control.”

- The upgraded Song Editor gives users the ability to reorder, rewrite and remake their track section by section, right from the waveform.

- They can split their track into 12 clean stems, ready to preview and download.

- Users can upload full songs up to eight minutes in length, be it a work in progress, a hummed melody or a text description of a sound, from which they can start working.

- Creative sliders enable users to choose how “weird”, structured or reference-driven their generations get.

Ongoing legal complications:

- Suno and its competitor Udio are facing lawsuits from the major labels, alleging copyright infringement in the AI training process.

- Earlier this week reports surfaced that a settlement may be near, with the majors in talks to license their recordings.

- Now the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that a key ask from the labels is Content ID-style fingerprinting technology, which would make it possible to monitor the particulars of how a song is used by the AI platforms, and therefore how much artists and labels should be paid.

- YouTube uses Content ID to identify music that’s been uploaded to the video platform, allowing rightsholders to claim revenue on ads served on the song regardless of whether the uploader had permission to post the track.

- The WSJ also claims the majors want to be “active participants in the music-related products that the AI companies release, including having a say in which products are developed and how they work.”

👋 Disclosures & Transparency Block

- This story was written with information sourced from Suno’s blog, with additional reporting by Music Business Worldwide and the Wall Street Journal.

- We covered it because of the industry focus on AI and copyright infringements, and the implications the ongoing litigation could have for the industry. 

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