AI music and the major labels: who has settled, who is suing again

The fight over what AI song generators may train on is being settled one deal at a time, and reopened one lawsuit at a time. Here is where it stood on 25 October 2026. Each line links to its source.

Status by company

A settlement ends one lawsuit between two companies. It does not end the wider dispute: in both cases above, other labels are still suing.

The second lawsuits

In both new cases, the labels had asked to add thousands of recordings to their original lawsuits and were refused, so they filed new suits instead.

• Sony v. Udio (July 2026): after the court in New York declined on 29 June to let Sony add more than 30,000 recordings to the original case, Sony filed a new suit asserting 30,117 recordings, including claims about ripping audio from YouTube. Source: MBW, 20 Jul 2026
• Universal and Sony v. Suno (September 2026): after the judge in Boston declined on 18 August to add 61,026 recordings, the labels sued again over 60,202 recordings, naming Suno's v6 model launched on 9 September and earlier versions. Source: MBW, 18 Sep 2026

Suno and Udio both argue that training on recordings is fair use. None of these cases had reached a final judgment by late October 2026.

Why it matters if you make music

Licensing deals tend to bring rules about which voices and styles are allowed and what users may do with the output. Lawsuits can change features or terms. If you use AI tools, keep a record of what you generated, when, and under which plan, and read the current terms before you release. Our commercial-use scenarios walk through the common cases.