Suno and Udio's licensing deals with major labels turn AI music from a lawsuit into a product category

The licensing agreements Suno and Udio have each separately reached with major record labels - resolving the copyright-infringement lawsuits the labels originally filed over the unauthorised use of copyrighted recordings in training data - have converted what looked for over a year like an existential legal threat to both AI music-generation companies into a negotiated commercial relationship that gives the labels equity stakes, licensing fees and a degree of influence over how their catalogue's stylistic characteristics can be invoked in AI-generated output, a resolution structure that mirrors, in some respects, the licensing deals that emerged earlier between news publishers and AI text-generation labs. The settlement terms have not fully satisfied independent musicians and smaller labels who were not party to the negotiations and who argue that a settlement negotiated by the largest incumbents does not adequately protect artists whose work may still be used in ways they never consented to and are not compensated for under the terms the majors negotiated primarily for their own catalogues. The product implications of the settlements have been significant - both Suno and Udio have since launched features allowing artists and labels to opt in to licensed style-and-voice usage with revenue-sharing arrangements, effectively creating a new AI-assisted music-licensing category that some songwriters and producers have begun to view as a legitimate additional income stream rather than purely a threat to existing revenue, even as the broader debate over AI's impact on musician livelihoods, particularly for session musicians and lower-tier working artists most exposed to displacement, remains unresolved. India's music industry, spanning Bollywood's enormous soundtrack economy and the independent and regional-language music scenes, has watched the Suno-Udio settlements with particular interest given the scale of Indian film-music catalogues and the commercial value that AI companies would place on licensing access to that catalogue for training data, though no comparable licensing negotiation between Indian labels and AI music companies has yet been publicly disclosed. What to watch: whether independent musicians and smaller labels secure comparable licensing terms or pursue separate litigation, how the revenue-sharing AI-music features perform commercially for artists who opt in, and whether any major Indian music label begins licensing negotiations with Suno, Udio or a comparable AI music platform.

Original source: Billboard