Copyright holders will be paid when people use a v6 model, though the firm hasn’t said how much
SUNO is rolling out its long-awaited artificial intelligence models trained and made in cooperation with major music industry players such as Warner Music.
The new models, known as v6, will be faster and of higher quality, according to a Suno blog post on Wednesday (Sep 9).
“The future of music needs to be built in partnership with the music industry and with the artists,” Jack Brody, Suno’s chief product officer, said in an interview. “I think this is a crucible moment for Suno, and it really marks a new chapter.”
The models do not allow users to invoke actual artists’ names when writing prompts for songs, Brody said.
Instead, these updated models will replace earlier versions that did not compensate the owners of the underlying music rights. When people use a v6 model, copyright holders will be paid – exactly how much, however, Suno is not saying.
According to Brody, Suno will pay the labels and publishers, which will then determine on their own how to divvy up the resulting royalties among their artists and songwriters.
In an interview with Bloomberg News earlier this year, Robert Kyncl, CEO at Warner Music, said Suno would be paying more per user to his company and its artists than they currently receive from the likes of Spotify Technology and other music streaming platforms.
The v6 models, Suno announced, also incorporate music from BMG Rights Management, a large independent record label and music publisher owned by Bertelsmann.
Suno has yet to make deals with Universal Music and Sony Music, the two largest record labels in the world. Both businesses are suing Suno over alleged copyright infringement.
Wednesday’s roll-out will include new functionality, Suno said, such as being able to generate a song from audio, images and video inspirations. Users will also be able to compose a song that draws from various genres and sources in a single prompt.
Suno and its competitors have yet to launch tools that allow fans and casual users to employ AI to remix or cover songs from existing artists.
Musicians have been hesitant to give AI companies this kind of permission, particularly the ability to manipulate their voices, without guarantees of proper protection and compensation.
Brody said Suno’s version of this type of tool is in development. BLOOMBERG
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