AI music copyright fights center on two questions. Who owns AI-made music, and who gets paid when AI companies train on existing songs? Record labels, rights groups, lawmakers and musicians have all taken positions. This guide sorts the record into the good, the bad and the ugly. For the wider picture, see our overview of music and AI.
Two Questions Behind AI Music Copyright
Most AI music copyright disputes turn on one of two questions. One is about what goes into an AI system. The other is about what comes out.
What Goes In: Training Data
AI music companies train their systems on very large collections of existing recordings. Rights holders argue that copying those works for training requires permission and payment. AI companies dispute that, and courts in the U.S. and Germany are now hearing these cases. The lawsuits in the ugly section below are mostly about this question.
What Comes Out: Ownership
The second question is who owns an AI-made song. In the United States, copyright protects human authorship. The U.S. Copyright Office put it plainly in a January 2025 report: “Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements.” The full report is on the Office’s website.
The Good: Deals, Labels and Limits
Labels Sign Deals With AI Companies
Some of the biggest record companies have signed deals with AI music companies. In October 2025, Universal Music Group reached agreements with Udio. “These new agreements with Udio demonstrate our commitment to do what’s right by our artists and songwriters,” Universal chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge said, according to Music Business Worldwide.
Warner Music Group followed with a deal with Suno in November 2025. “This landmark pact with Suno is a victory for the creative community that benefits everyone,” Warner CEO Robert Kyncl said, according to SiliconANGLE.
Independent rights groups have signed deals, too. In August 2025, Merlin, which represents independent labels, and publisher Kobalt licensed music to ElevenLabs for its Eleven Music tool. “Our partnership with ElevenLabs demonstrates that music rightsholders can negotiate thoughtful, forward-looking agreements with AI companies,” said Jeremy Sirota, Merlin’s CEO at the time, in the announcement. “ElevenLabs has been a collaborative partner, committed to sourcing data directly from rightsholders and protecting them,” said Kobalt CEO Laurent Hubert.
What the Copyright Office Says About Authorship
In January 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office also addressed prompts. The Office concluded: “[G]iven current generally available technology, prompts alone do not provide sufficient human control to make users of an AI system the authors of the output,” according to IPWatchdog, which quoted the report. Under that view, writing a prompt alone does not make someone the author of the result.
Songwriter groups have drawn a similar line. In October 2025, U.S. and Canadian performing rights organizations announced aligned policies. “ASCAP, BMI and SOCAN today announced they have each adopted policies to accept registrations of musical compositions partially generated using artificial intelligence (AI) tools,” according to BMI. However, “musical compositions that are entirely created using AI tools are not eligible for registration with any of the individual societies.”
Deezer Labels AI Music
Deezer began tagging AI-generated music for listeners in June 2025, according to its launch announcement. The company says it became “the first streaming platform to explicitly tag AI-generated music for listeners,” according to a July 2026 release.
The Bad: Fraud and Spam
Fraudulent Streams
Deezer has published a fraud estimate. It reported its findings in a July 2026 release. It found that up to 85% of streams on fully AI-generated tracks were fraudulent in 2025. Even so, AI listening remains small on Deezer. The company says fully AI-generated music makes up between 1% and 3% of its streams, according to the same release.
Fraud affects how royalties are shared. Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier has described the company’s work as “fighting fraud and reducing payment dilution related to AI music,” according to TechCrunch.
A Criminal Case
In 2024, federal prosecutors charged musician Michael Smith over an alleged scheme using AI-generated songs and automated “bot” accounts. Smith “fraudulently obtained more than $10 million in royalty payments through his scheme,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said when it announced the indictment. Smith later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In October 2026, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, Music Week reported.
The Ugly: Lawsuits Over Training Data
AI Music Copyright in the Courts
Many AI music copyright lawsuits are about training data. Not every label has settled. In July 2026, Sony filed a new suit against Udio “asserting 30,117 sound recordings it says the AI music company copied without permission,” according to Music Business Worldwide. “Sony is now the only one of the three major labels still fighting Udio directly,” t2ONLINE reported.
Suno faces new claims as well. In September 2026, Sony and Universal filed a new lawsuit against Suno over its v6 models. According to Variety, “WMG, BMG and Believe each have signed deals with Suno to license their content.” Even so, the two labels argued that the new models still rest on earlier, unlicensed training. “V6 is not a fresh start; it is the fruit of the same poisoned tree,” the labels claimed. A Suno spokesperson called the claims “fundamentally flawed on both the facts and the law.”
Rulings in Germany
A court in Munich has ruled in two AI music copyright cases brought by music-rights society GEMA. First, it ruled for GEMA against OpenAI in November 2025, according to GEMA. “The ChatGPT systems contain copies of the original works,” GEMA said. GEMA CEO Tobias Holzmüller added, in a statement translated from German: “The internet is not some kind of self-service buffet,” according to GEMA.
Then, on July 31, 2026, the Munich Regional Court ruled against Suno. The court found that “Suno is in breach of both US and German copyright legislation,” Music Week reported. Damages have not yet been set. The court “largely ruled in GEMA’s favour,” and “the judgment is not yet final,” according to law firm CMS. “AI service providers must pay for licences rather than helping themselves to our members’ works free of charge,” Holzmüller said in a GEMA statement. Suno disagreed. “We disagree with today’s ruling – which rests on a fundamental mischaracterisation of how Suno’s technology works, how it is used and how US law applies – and are evaluating all available options, including an appeal,” a Suno spokesperson said, according to Music Week.
Lyrics Lawsuits
Lyrics are also part of the AI music copyright fight. Music publishers Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord and ABKCO have sued AI company Anthropic twice. Of the second suit, Music Business Worldwide reported: “They filed it in January 2026, seeking more than USD $3 billion over Anthropic’s alleged copying of lyrics via torrenting from pirate libraries.” MBW’s August 2026 report said Anthropic was seeking a partial dismissal.
Musicians Protest in the UK
In February 2025, more than 1,000 musicians released a silent album protesting proposed changes to UK copyright law. “In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?” Kate Bush asked, according to Music Business Worldwide.
In March 2026, the UK government dropped its preferred opt-out approach to AI training. Even so, UK Music chief executive Tom Kiehl pressed for more. “We urge them to go further and rule out resurrecting this plan throughout their period in office,” Kiehl said, according to Radio X.
Steps Musicians Can Take Now
The rules on AI music copyright are still changing. Here are practical steps, with official guidance linked where it exists.
- Register your songs. Register works with the U.S. Copyright Office and a performing rights organization, such as ASCAP or BMI.
- Disclose AI material when you register. The Copyright Office’s 2023 guidance says “applicants have a duty to disclose the inclusion of AI-generated content in a work submitted for registration.”
- Keep records of your process. Drafts, demos and session files show the human work in a song.
- Know the EU opt-out. Providers of general-purpose AI models must respect “rights reservations under Union copyright law,” according to the European Commission. Such a reservation is often called an opt-out.
- Read the terms. Check what an AI tool’s terms say about ownership before you release anything made with it. Our guide to AI music generators covers this.
Where AI Music Copyright Stands
AI music copyright is moving on two tracks at once. Some labels are licensing AI companies, while others are still in court. Meanwhile, a Munich court has ruled for GEMA twice, and U.S. cases are still open. For how these tools work in practice, see our guide to AI music generators.
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Explore the rest of this series:
- Music and AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- AI Music Generators: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- AI Voice Cloning in Music: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- AI Music Production Tools: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Learning Guitar With AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
About the Education Team
Four music-industry veterans with decades of combined experience in music education, curation, and production at TrueFire and ArtistWorks. The TrueFire Studios Education Team plans and edits this content and works with our master-musician faculty to keep it accurate and genuinely useful.