Musicians shortchanged by AI deals with labels, lawsuit alleges
Key takeaways
- Musicians have been left out of settlements between major record labels and AI companies, a new lawsuit alleges.
- UMG and WMG sued AI companies Udio and Suno in 2024, accusing them of copyright infringement.
- Universal Music Group reached a settlement with AI startup Udio, ending a legal battle in which UMG had accused Udio of taking copyrighted music to train its AI model.
Mikey Shulman, one of the founders of AI music generator startup Suno, right, and research scientist Christian Steinmetz, collaborate on creating a song, in Cambridge, Mass. (Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press) By Wendy Lee Staff Writer Follow June 8, 2026 3:22 PM PT 4 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X Linked In Threads Reddit Whats App Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.
Musicians have been left out of settlements between major record labels and AI companies, a new lawsuit alleges.
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM), which has 70,000 members, said Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group “received significant compensation” from the AI companies for past copyright violations and licensed “substantial” portions of their music catalogs to them, but haven’t shared that with the musicians.