Universal Music and Sony deny Suno the right to distribute AI tracks outside the app

Suno's negotiations with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment regarding licensing have reached an impasse. The parties cannot agree on a key issue: whether users have the right to freely distribute tracks created with artificial intelligence outside the app itself. According to Financial Times, Universal insists that AI-generated music remains within services like Suno and does not spread freely across the internet. Suno's position is directly opposite: the company wants to give users the ability to share created tracks anywhere, including social media, streaming platforms, and video hosting services. This fundamental disagreement is blocking any licensing agreement.

Suno is one of the most well-known AI music generation tools. The service allows anyone to create a complete track from a text description: just write 'sad jazz about Friday evening' or 'upbeat pop for the gym' — and within seconds a song with vocals, instrumentation, and verse-chorus structure is ready. This very simplicity made Suno a popular service with millions of users — and simultaneously turned it into one of the music industry's biggest headaches.

In June 2024, the world's largest record labels — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group — filed a collective copyright infringement lawsuit against Suno. The essence of their claims: the company trained its model on protected musical works without the permission of copyright holders and without any payments. The trial is not yet complete, and against this backdrop, the parties' attempts to reach a licensing agreement become particularly significant — and particularly complex.

The disagreement over the right to distribute tracks is not just a technical nuance. For major labels, this is a question of control over distribution. If Suno users can freely upload AI tracks to YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, and Apple Music, they will effectively begin competing with commercial releases — at zero cost to consumers. Universal and Sony want any music created based on their catalogs to remain in a closed loop and not enter the open ecosystem.

Suno sees the situation differently. The ability to share a created track is the very essence of the product. A user who cannot post the result on social media or send it to a friend gets a truncated experience. A service without sharing is a demo version, not a full-fledged tool. The labels' requirement essentially means: you can use our musical DNA to create something new, but you can't share it. For Suno, this is a condition that kills the product.

The situation reflects a systemic conflict throughout the industry. AI companies build their business by training models on existing cultural content and monetizing the results. Copyright holders demand either a ban or a share of revenues. Licensing deals as a middle ground are theoretically possible — but only if the parties are willing to compromise. Currently, their positions are too far apart from each other.

How the Suno story ends — both in court and at the negotiating table — will determine the rules of the game for the entire AI music market. If labels succeed in restricting the distribution of AI-generated content, this will significantly reduce the value of such services. If Suno upholds the right to free sharing, it will set a precedent that other AI companies will use in their disputes with the industry.