Universal Music and Sony Music File Second Copyright Lawsuit Against Suno Over V6 Model

Filing in Massachusetts District Court

Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment have filed a second copyright lawsuit against generative AI music platform Suno in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, escalating their dispute over Suno's training practices. The complaint alleges Suno copied 60,202 sound recordings owned by the two major labels and used them without permission to develop its AI-powered music generation technology, which allows users to generate full songs from simple text prompts. The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages and an injunction.

Scope and Potential Damages

If a court finds willful infringement, the maximum statutory award of $150,000 per work could theoretically push damages past $9 billion based on the 60,202 recordings cited in the complaint. The case targets the lineage of Suno's technology rather than v6 alone, alleging that the new model was trained using accumulated knowledge from earlier models the labels say were built on copyrighted recordings without authorization.

The v6 Model at the Center

The complaint focuses on Suno's v6 model, launched in early September through partnerships with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe. Suno Chief Product Officer Jack Brody told Music Business Worldwide that v6 was trained "entirely from scratch" on different data and without UMG or Sony recordings. A Suno spokesperson said v6 was "trained on content licensed from our partners, interactions including creations and preference signals from our community, and the accumulated learnings from our team."

Industry Background and Earlier Disputes

The new complaint continues a dispute that began in 2024, when UMG, Sony Music and Warner Music sued Suno over its training practices. Warner Music later settled and struck a licensing agreement with Suno, while UMG and Sony remained in litigation. The labels argue that alleged infringement from earlier models carries into v6 through that training lineage.

Suno's Response

Suno has rejected the allegations, calling the complaint "fundamentally flawed on both the facts and the law." The company framed its platform as a tool that helps people make new music. "Every song on Suno begins with a person and an idea," a spokesperson said. "When someone asks for a particular artist, we translate that into the musical qualities behind the request – not so that a user can imitate someone else's work, but so that people learn the language of music and make something of their own."