Via musically.com
The $1.1 billion music rights holder alleges both AI companies used copyrighted lyrics without permission to train their models
Round Hill Music, the independent publisher sitting on a catalog worth $1.1 billion, has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against both Anthropic and Suno, alleging the AI companies helped themselves to lyrics from more than 500 songs without bothering to ask.
The twin lawsuits, filed on August 17 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, target two very different corners of the AI world. Anthropic builds Claude, a general-purpose chatbot. Suno builds an AI music generator. Both, according to Round Hill, share a common trait: they allegedly trained on copyrighted material they never licensed.
What Round Hill is claiming #
The cases, filed under case numbers 5:26-cv-08505 and 5:26-cv-08507, center on a straightforward allegation. Round Hill says both companies ingested lyrics from at least 500 titles in its portfolio to improve their respective AI models.
That portfolio isn’t exactly obscure. Round Hill’s catalog includes works from James Brown, The Kinks, and the Goo Goo Dolls. Think “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” “You Really Got Me,” and “Iris.”
For Anthropic, the accusation is that Claude’s ability to reproduce or reference song lyrics stems from unauthorized training data. For Suno, the claim cuts even closer to the bone, since its entire product is designed to generate music, making the provenance of its training data a particularly sensitive question.
A pattern, not an outlier #
Round Hill’s lawsuits are the latest in a growing line of copyright actions from the music industry aimed squarely at AI developers. Prior lawsuits involving Universal Music Group and Concord have targeted Anthropic over alleged unauthorized lyric use in training Claude, while Suno has also faced additional actions accusing it of using sound recordings without permission.
What makes the Round Hill suits notable is the publisher’s size and independence. This isn’t a major label with a legal department the size of a small army. Round Hill is an independent publisher, albeit one managing $1.1 billion in music rights. Its willingness to litigate suggests the issue has moved well beyond the majors.
The two defendants also represent distinct use cases for AI training. Anthropic’s Claude is a general-purpose assistant, not a music product. Suno is specifically in the business of AI-generated music. By suing both, Round Hill is making a statement: it doesn’t matter what you’re building with the data. If you used our copyrighted material without a license, we’re coming after you.
No settlements or resolutions have been reported in either case.
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