Sony, UMG Sue Suno Again, Alleging AI Music Model Laundering

Sony Music and Universal Music Group filed a new copyright lawsuit against AI music startup Suno on September 25, accusing the company's latest model, v6, of laundering infringing material rather than eliminating it, according to a complaint shared with The Verge. The filing marks the second time the labels have sued Suno and comes after the startup told users v6 was built with a clean data set.

What does the new lawsuit allege?

Sony and UMG argue that v6 still infringes their copyrights because Suno trained it on outputs generated by the company's earlier models, which the labels say were themselves built on unlicensed recordings pulled from YouTube and other sources, per the complaint cited by The Verge. The labels call the practice "model laundering."

The complaint states: "Training a 'new' model on the outputs of an infringing model does not eliminate the infringement; it launders it, passing the value of Plaintiffs' expression from the copied recordings into the tainted models, from those models into their outputs, and from those outputs into v6 … V6 is not a fresh start; it is the fruit of the same poisoned tree," according to the filing obtained by The Verge.

What has Suno said about how v6 was trained?

When v6 launched, Suno co-founder Jack Brody told The Verge the model was "trained from the ground up, with a new set of data," including "user data," but did not specify further, according to the outlet's reporting. Suno spokesperson Rachel Racusen later confirmed to The Verge that the training data includes "cre-" [output was truncated in the source material before further detail], leaving the full scope of Suno's data-sourcing claim unconfirmed in material reviewed for this report.

Why are Sony and UMG suing instead of licensing Suno?

Sony and UMG are described by The Verge as notable holdouts among major labels that have not signed licensing agreements with Suno, setting them apart from competitors who have reached deals with the startup. That gap has left the two labels outside any negotiated framework covering how their catalogs can be used to train or generate AI output, according to the report.

Is this the first time Sony and UMG have sued Suno?

No. The Verge notes this is the labels' second lawsuit against the company, part of what the outlet describes as an ongoing legal campaign by major music companies against AI generators over alleged copyright infringement. The new filing specifically targets the v6 release, arguing that a newer model trained partly on a predecessor's outputs cannot be treated as a clean break from prior infringement claims.

What happens next in the case?

The Verge's report does not detail a court schedule, and no ruling or response from Suno to the new complaint was included in the material reviewed. The dispute adds to a broader set of lawsuits testing how copyright law applies when AI companies train new models on data generated by their own earlier systems rather than directly on copyrighted works, a legal question that remains unresolved as the case proceeds, according to The Verge's coverage of the filing.