As Some Labels Strike Deals With Suno, Artist Reps Sound Off: ‘It’s the Wild, Wild West’

Suno’s deal with BMG, announced last month , has turned into a referendum on artists’ feelings about AI.

Mötley Crüe , for example, is OK with it.

“BMG has asked them, and they’re saying, ‘As long as you made a deal where we get paid, we’ll opt in,’” says Allen Kovac , manager of the veteran hard-rock band, which sold its recorded-music catalog to the label in 2021 for a number reported at between $90 million and $150 million.

“It promotes your music.

It doesn’t dilute your music.” He adds that “a million Mötley Crüe cover bands” over the years have demonstrated fans are still willing to pay for the real thing as opposed to turning the copycats into stars who might cannibalize the group’s original music.

To say the least, not every artist or artist rep is feeling so bullish about music companies’ deals with Suno, the AI music firm valued at $5.4 billion that claims 2 million paid users and 100 million who have created songs with its service.

This is true even in cases like BMG, which has said its partnership with Suno includes an opt-in clause, effectively allowing its artists and songwriters to accept or reject the use of their music to train AI systems and generate works.

Related UMG & Sony Hit Suno With New Lawsuit After Label-Backed Model: ‘Fruit of the Same Poisoned Tree’ Billboard to Add Smart Media Albums As Chart-Eligible Sales Formats Duane 'Keffe D' Davis Gives First Interview After Tupac Shakur Murder Conviction Even though it’s opt-in, “none of our clients will be doing that,” says Dina LaPolt , a longtime music attorney.

But, she adds: “Kudos to BMG for opt-in vs. opt-out.” Along with BMG, companies including Warner Music Group (WMG) and Believe have struck partnerships with Suno — the former after dropping its lawsuit against the platform last November — which unveiled its new v6 music models on Sept.

9. (Suno is still the subject of copyright lawsuits from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, including a new one the two majors jointly filed on Sept.

18, that added 61,000 songs to the legal battle and argued Suno’s v6 music models were just “fruit of the same poisoned tree.” Individual artists such as singer-songwriter Jason Isbell have also filed lawsuits that accuse the platform of using their copyrighted works without permission.) The exact nature of these deals, in terms of whether artists and songwriters must give permission for their music to be used in training and outputs, isn’t entirely clear.