This is The Legal Beat, Billboard Pro's weekly music law newsletter: your one-stop source for big new cases, important rulings, and all the fun stuff.
This week saw the world's largest music company file a lawsuit against an artificial intelligence (AI) music company for allegedly stealing copyrighted music on an “unimaginable scale,” a federal court rule that Megan Thee Stallion did not copy her chart-topper “Savage” from an earlier song, and the artist formerly known as Kanye West settle a copyright lawsuit brought by the estate of Donna Summers.
Big news: Major record companies sue AI Music over training
In the latest battle between the music industry and AI companies, three major music companies have filed a lawsuit against AI startups Suno and Udio, alleging that they infringed music copyrights on an “unimaginable scale” to train their models.
Like the numerous copyright lawsuits already filed by authors, visual artists, newspapers, and other creative industries, this new case raises what could ultimately become a trillion-dollar legal question: Is building an AI model that uses vast amounts of unique copyrighted material to spit out new creations a copyright infringement? Or is it simply a form of legal fair use, transforming all of your old copyrighted material into something entirely new?
The music industry has already fought this battle once, when major publishers sued AI giant Anthropic last year, alleging that the company used song lyrics to train its AI models (the case is still pending), but this latest lawsuit spearheaded by the RIAA is the first to deal with sound and music itself, targeting two companies whose models can create entire songs with the push of a button.
Snow and Udio have quickly become two of the most important players in the emerging field of AI-generative music: Udio has already produced what could be called an AI-generated hit, “BBL Drizzy,” a parody track made popular by a remix by superproducer Metro Boomin and later sampled by Drake himself, and as of May, Snow had raised a combined $125 million to create what Rolling Stone called “the musical equivalent of ChatGPT.”
In the lawsuit, the record companies argue that their success was built on the strength of real, human artists: “Since its launch, Udio has rushed to become the top AI music generation service and has ignored the rights of music industry copyright holders. Neither Udio nor any other AI generation company can be allowed to advance toward this goal while trampling on the rights of copyright holders.”
For more information, read Kristin Robinson's full article on the new lawsuit, and check out the actual complaints filed against Suno and Udio. And stay tuned to Billboard for updates as the two lawsuits unfold in federal court…
Other top stories from this week…
MEGAN WINS COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT — A federal court has ruled that Megan Thee Stallion didn't copy her chart-topping hit “Savage” from an earlier song, finding the two songs are “qualitatively different” and that there's no evidence the superstar had ever heard the lesser-known instrumental track.
SUMMER SAMPLE SETTLEMENT — Ye (formerly Kanye West) has finalized a settlement with the estate of Donna Summer to resolve a copyright lawsuit alleging that he “shamelessly” used Summer's 1977 hit “I Feel Love” without permission in his song “Good (Don't Die).” A lawyer for Summer's estate confirmed to Billboard that the settlement did not include a license for Ye to legally re-release the song in question, saying, “We got what we wanted.”
The YSL trial drama continues — Yak Gotti, one of Young Thug's co-defendants in the Atlanta YSL gang case, has asked the Georgia Supreme Court to force Judge Ural Glanville to recuse himself from the ongoing trial, citing recent revelations of secret meetings between the judge, prosecutors and key witnesses. Gotti's lawyers warned that Judge Glanville's actions “undermine the public's confidence in the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Album Hacking Lawsuit Settled – Kelsea Ballerini has reached a settlement to end her lawsuit with Bo Ewing, an obsessive fan who accused her of hacking and leaking her unreleased album. Ballerini agreed to drop the lawsuit after Ewing promised not to share or access the material in question again.
MADONNA LAWSUIT CLOSED — Two Madonna fans have dropped their lawsuit over the delayed start of a concert, but Madonna's lawyers were quick to clarify that the move was “not the result of a settlement.” Madonna's lawyers reiterated their previous assertion that the lawsuit was a “strike suit” aimed at extorting a settlement payment, and say they may seek legal sanctions against the lawyers who filed the “frivolous” lawsuit.
Petty documentary sparks lawsuit — A filmmaker named Martin Atkins has filed a lawsuit against Warner Music over the 2021 Tom Petty documentary “Somewhere You Feel Free,” alleging that the film used 45 minutes of copyrighted footage of the late rock legend without his permission or compensation. Atkins claims he was “tricked” into sharing the footage after producers promised him he'd be allowed to direct the documentary.