Suno Begins Updating Policies Under Agreement With WMG

Suno, the prominent AI music creation platform, has apparently begun the process of implementing the new policies stemming from its sweeping deal with Warner Music Group (WMG). The two companies settled a long-term lawsuit alongside striking the new agreement back in November, and now, back-end updates to Suno are emerging.

The details:

• Regarding commercial use rights, not much language has changed, but certain words are now bolded. See below:

• “Songs made while subscribed (to a Pro or Premier plan) are granted commercial use rights.”

• “Songs made on the free plan (not subscribed) are only available for non-commercial use and cannot be monetized.”

• “Starting a subscription after you made a great song will not give you a retroactive license for the song.” Though the website does list possible scenarios where retroactive licenses can be provided to “specific songs.”

• A more significant change relates to copyright ownership. Prior to the deal, Suno granted ownership of the music to the user. Now, the language is more vague:

• “You may be granted commercial use rights, which allow you to reproduce (copy) the song(s) to sell, distribute, etc. Even with granted commercial use rights, you generally are not considered the owner of the songs, since the output was generated by Suno.”

• Another section reads: “We can't guarantee that what you input was yours, and we can't guarantee that the output won't be similar to other outputs we generate.”

• The above signals a greater concession to different owners, such as labels and artists.