Sony Music Entertainment has once again sued the AI music generator Udio, alleging the startup illegally copied more than 30,000 songs from the likes of Beyoncé, Harry Styles and Elvis Presley to train its models.
Sony first brought lawsuits against Udio and its competitor Suno in June 2024 alongside labels Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. In the new lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, Sony claimed that discovery for the case revealed 30,117 tracks were found among Udio’s training datasets. U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein last month denied Sony’s bid to add those tracks to its original suit, prompting the label to file a new complaint to protect its copyright.
“Foundational principles of copyright law dictate that copying protected sound recordings for the purpose of developing a commercial AI product like Udio’s requires permission from rightsholders,” Sony alleged in its complaint. “Otherwise, such AI offerings will erode the value of the artistic works that comprise the essential raw materials that allow them to function in the first place. If left unmoored from existing and longstanding legal constraints, such products could supplant, rather than support, genuine human creativity.”
