Sony and UMG sue Suno's licensed v6, calling it laundered infringement
The labels want the model that was supposed to make AI music safe to build on pulled from the market — plus $9B+ in damages over 60,202 recordings.
Copy markdown
They're suing the 'clean' model now
On Sept 18, UMG and Sony filed a second suit in Boston federal court — this time over v6, the model Suno marketed as built 'from scratch' with Warner, BMG, and Believe. They allege 60,202 recordings were copied and want up to $150,000 each (a theoretical $9B+), plus an order halting use. The licensing deals meant to de-risk Suno haven't closed the copyright question.
'It launders it,' not licenses it
The core theory: 'Training a "new" model on the outputs of an infringing model does not eliminate the infringement; it launders it.' The labels say v6 inherited its abilities from v4–v5.5 through preference data and distillation. If that argument lands, any model distilled from questionable data is exposed — a precedent that reaches well past music.
What to do if you ship AI audio
Nothing breaks today: Suno's app, API, and v6 are still live. But an injunction could pull commercial music-gen workflows out from under you. If you build on AI audio, line up a fallback and watch the docket — 'licensed' isn't yet the same as 'litigation-proof.'