Sony Music and UMG Sue Suno Again, Alleging v6 Models Used Unlicensed Music
Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group have sued AI music generator Suno again, alleging its v6 models were trained partly on unlicensed music and could infringe more than 60,000 recordings.
The labels’ suit, obtained by Music Business Worldwide, focuses on Suno’s public acknowledgement that the v6 models were trained on “users’ ‘interactions’ with Suno’s service.” Sony Music and UMG say that description means the models learned from “the outputs of, and preference signals derived from, prior models that Suno built by copying Plaintiffs’ recordings without authorization.” Under that interpretation, the labels claim Suno could be liable for infringing at least 60,202 sound recordings, according to Music Business Worldwide.
That exposure could reach up to $9 billion in damages under US copyright law, the publication reported, plus up to $2,500 for each time Suno circumvented YouTube’s anti-downloading technology to scrape songs. The lawsuit rejects Suno’s position that the v6 models rely on licensed material, arguing the company found a roundabout way to train the new models on unlicensed music.
Suno disputed the claims. “These claims remain fundamentally flawed on both the facts and the law,” the company said in a statement to Engadget, adding that “Suno exists so that more people can make new music.” Suno said it had spent the past two years pursuing that goal and launched v6 in partnership with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe. “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,” the company said. “We are excited for a future where AI and the music industry continue to strengthen one another and build entirely new product experiences for artists, fans and the broader music community.”
The new case builds on an earlier lawsuit against Suno by Sony Music, UMG and Warner Music Group. It also follows a July 2026 hack of Suno’s data that revealed the AI company had scraped millions of songs and lyrics from platforms including YouTube Music, Deezer and Genius to train earlier models. Suno has previously justified scraping music to train AI by arguing it falls under the fair use doctrine.
Alongside the release of the v6 models, Suno ended support for its older models, a move that at least suggested it believed offering a product trained on licensed material would be more palatable to critics. If a judge accepts the record companies’ understanding of how Suno trained its models, that might not be enough.
Editor’s Summary: Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group have filed a new copyright lawsuit against Suno, arguing its v6 models were trained partly on unlicensed music and could infringe more than 60,000 recordings. Suno denies the claims and says v6 was trained on licensed content, community interactions and its team’s learnings. The case follows earlier label litigation and a 2026 data breach that exposed scraping of songs and lyrics for earlier models.