Universal, Sony Say Suno 'Laundered' Their Music — SkimNews
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- Suno agreed deals with record labels and claimed its newest version is trained only on licensed data, but Universal and Sony allege that version was built using outputs of Suno's earlier models that copied their recordings without permission — calling the practice "laundering."
- Microsoft's own director of applied science Brent Hecht described the company's scale of copying in 2023 as "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" and "the largest theft of labor in human history," according to newly unredacted court filings in the New York Times's copyright case against OpenAI and Microsoft.
- Deezer reports that half of all new uploads to streaming platforms are now AI-generated, and 85% of fully AI-generated music streams are fraudulent.
- SIQA data shows 93% of AI-generated music comes from Suno, which established its dominant position by training on tens of millions of recordings without permission.
- Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, former CEO of U.K. Music, argues licensing deals should not serve as amnesty for systemic copyright infringement and calls for governments to require AI developers to disclose their training data — drawing the parallel to anti-money laundering rules.
- AI companies have persistently argued training on copyrighted work is legal, but Njoku-Goodwin writes that argument is "weakening by the day" as courts and even company employees characterize the copying as theft.
Why it matters: With 93% of AI-generated music originating from Suno and major labels now framing its training practices as "laundering," the outcome could determine whether licensing deals retroactively legitimize infringement — putting artists and labels in a position to demand training-data disclosure rather than accepting whatever terms dominant AI companies offer.
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