Suno, a Massachusetts-based AI music generative platform, is again amid lawsuits. This time, the complaint comes from the rights holders of two music legends – Elvis Presley, aka the King of Rock and Roll, and Eminem, aka the Rap God.
The plaintiffs alleged that the AI company stole their copyrighted works and used them to train its AI music generator.Both lawsuits were filed on Friday in the Northern District of California. The same legal team, led by attorney Richard Busch, represents both plaintiffs.
The lawsuit shows several examples of AI songs that allegedly mimic Eminem’s lyricism and Presley’s sound.Eight Mile Style, the company behind Eminem’s early hits, has sued Suno, alleging it copied its songs without permission and trampled “the rights of Eight Mile Style.” Meanwhile, a group of rights holders, including Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing, accuses Suno of breaking Tennessee’s ELVIS Act, the 2024 law named after the King himself. The law is meant to protect artists from having their voice, image and likeness used commercially without permission, with AI voice cloning squarely in its sights.
The 51-page complaint claims Suno let users generate tracks that imitate Presley’s voice, and the damages could top $50 million, according to the lawsuit.Coming to Suno’s side, the AI company denied the allegations. Suno’s spokesperson responded to the lawsuits, saying it does not “allow prompts for specific artists’ names and songs” and works “with third-party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse.” It added, "Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone's name or likeness, and we prohibit any unauthorised use of an artist's work." However, Presley’s side noted serious concerns addressing the alleged theft of Elvis work; the complaint goes, “All of the humanity, history, despair, and triumph that constitutes Elvis’ identity was stolen and is stored on servers and harnessed by Suno to make massive amounts of money.” It also adds, “The next Elvis won’t pick up a guitar.
Suno’s ravenous race to the bottom aims to make human creativity obsolete.”For those who don’t know, this is not the first time Suno AI came under the hammer of copyright lawsuits. Earlier, big names like Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music also sued the company over its doubtful AI training.
While the Universal Music Group has later settled its lawsuit, Universal Music Group and Sony Music’s cases are still going on. Being accused of copyright infringement or violating intellectual property rights seems increasingly common among AI companies.
The same Authentic Brands Group, which owns some of Elvis’s work, sued Anthropic last month, alleging it used 274 of his songs to train its AI models without permission. And if you look at the lawsuits AI companies are facing over allegations of theft, the list will be really long.
With musicians and also writers challenging how their work enters AI training datasets, the legal question is becoming harder for tech companies to ignore.- Ends