Suno’s Tune Change: Warner Collaboration Ushers New Era, But at What Cost?

The AI music generation service Suno, which recently gained immense popularity, is undergoing a profound transformation. The company is partnering with Warner Music Group, radically altering its operation and eliminating many of the features that users had come to love.

The companies have labeled this agreement as the first partnership of its kind, and indeed it is. They assert that the deal will ‘open new horizons in music creation, interaction, and discovery, while ensuring compensation and protection for artists, songwriters, and the broader creative community.’

However, effectively, the deal renders Suno a less useful tool in many scenarios where it once excelled. As part of the agreement, Suno will abandon its existing AI models and develop a new one. This measure aims to avoid potentially infringing on label licensing rights. The new model will train on licensed compositions.

How flexible this model will be remains uncertain, as not all artists may wish to contribute their works. Suno will present content from WMG artists who have consented to the use of their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions in new AI-generated music. This presents fresh creative opportunities for artists who have agreed, opening new revenue streams and new ways for you to engage with them.

You will be able to create content based on the music of participating artists, with a guaranteed reward for them. The free tier will no longer allow downloading of AI-created compositions. Furthermore, even the paid subscription will have a download cap, although this limit can be extended for an additional fee.

This agreement was reached just a week after Warner Music settled a lawsuit and entered a partnership agreement with the competing AI song generation service, Udio. Udio ultimately banned the downloading of AI compositions altogether, leaving Suno’s future uncertain.