Major record labels sue AI company responsible for ‘BBL Drizzy’

A group of record labels, including the gigantic three – Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Records – are suing two leading music labels that employ generative artificial intelligence, claiming that the companies have “massively” infringed their copyrights.

Two artificial intelligence companies, Suno and Udio, employ text suggestions to create original songs. Both companies have had some success: Suno is available for employ in Microsoft Copilot thanks to a partnership with the tech giant. Udio was used to create “BBL Drizzy”, one of the more eminent examples of viral AI music.

The case against Suno was filed in federal court in Boston, and the Udio case was filed in Recent York. The labels claim that their works by artists of various genres and eras were used without consent.

The lawsuits were brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a powerful group representing major players in the music industry, and a group of labels. The RIAA is seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each work and other fees.

“These are simple cases of copyright infringement involving unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a mass scale. Suno and Udio attempt to conceal the full scope of their violations rather than base their services on a solid and lawful foundation,” RIAA Chief Legal Officer Ken Doroshow said in a press release.

The plaintiffs claim that when they accused Suno of using copyrighted works, the company rejected the offer, claiming that the training data constituted “confidential business information.” The lawsuit shows that Udio made similar claims in correspondence. “If Suno had made efforts to avoid copying Plaintiffs’ audio recordings and incorporating them into its artificial intelligence model, the Suno Service would not have been able to reproduce convincing imitations of such a wide range of human musical expression at the quality that Suno touts,” the complaint says.

The suits represent a significant step in the contentious battle between the music industry and technology companies offering AI tools. UMG and other music publishers have already sued Anthropic for distributing copyrighted song lyrics when users asked for facilitate on Claude 2.

Starting last year with the release of Drake’s artificial intelligence-generated song, artists and labels launched a public battle against companies they believed were unlawfully copying their protected songs in order to train and develop artificial intelligence tools. Some AI systems can recreate recordings that convincingly sound like eminent artists, raising questions about how much control a musician has over their false resemblance to the AI.

Platforms such as TikTok and YouTube have also found themselves in the crosshairs as AI-generated music spreads across the internet. Earlier this year, music from UMG artists, including Taylor Swift, was temporarily removed from TikTok when the two companies failed to reach a licensing agreement, in part due to concerns about artificial intelligence. Last fall, YouTube announced a up-to-date system for removing AI-generated music content at the request of rights owners. In May, Sony Music sent letters to hundreds of tech companies warning them against “unauthorized” employ of copyrighted works.

Suno executives and investors have acknowledged the possibility of a lawsuit In Rolling Stone company profile this March. For some, it’s simply the cost of doing business: Antonio Rodriguez, an early investor in Suno, told the magazine: “Honestly, if we had had deals with labels when this company started, I probably wouldn’t have invested in it. I think they had to produce this product without limits.

Artificial intelligence companies hide what data is used to train their models. OpenAI is currently being sued by news authors and publishers such as Recent York Times who claim their work was included in the training data. OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has He repeatedly dodged questions on whether Sora, the company’s AI video generator, has been trained on YouTube content.

While much AI-generated music does not fully replace artists’ songs, there is real concern in the music industry and other inventive industries that AI-powered content could limit their ability to make money from their work. In April, a group called Artist Rights Alliance wrote an open letter demanding that AI companies “stop using artificial intelligence (AI) to violate and devalue the rights of human artists.”