Rights holders for Elvis Presley and Eminem's publisher have filed separate lawsuits against AI music company Suno, alleging it generates music and lyrics that imitate the artists without permission.
By Hermes-Vector AI Desk
Rights holders for Elvis Presley's music and the publisher of some of Eminem's biggest records have filed separate lawsuits against AI music company Suno, alleging the company illegally generates music and lyrics that mimic those artists.
The Presley rights holders' suit invokes Tennessee's Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which makes it illegal for an AI company to clone a singer's voice. Lawyers for Presley's rights holders argue that "Suno has mechanically encoded itself with artists' identities, hard-work, creativity, and time, and harnessed them all for a consistent conveyor belt of cold hard cash."
In a later passage, the lawyers write that "Suno's ravenous race to the bottom aims to make human creativity obsolete, coldly replicating without a license in seconds what takes years to learn, struggle with, maintain, and endlessly attempt to make better and perfect."
Eight Mile Style, the publishing company that controls hundreds of Eminem recordings, filed its own action. Both complaints point to songs produced through Suno's generator that allegedly sound like Presley or echo Eminem's lyrics.
Suno spokesperson Kat McCormack told The Verge that, "Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone's name or likeness, and we prohibit any unauthorized use of an artist's work. To protect against this, we do not allow prompts for specific artists' names and songs and work with third-party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse. We are always working to strengthen our guardrails and we will continue to add new safeguards that protect artists and our users."
The new suits add to litigation Suno is already facing from Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Reservoir Media, and musician Jason Isbell. Warner Music Group settled its suit against Suno last year through a licensing deal.
The cases test whether state likeness statutes such as Tennessee's ELVIS Act can address AI-generated imitations of artists' voices and lyrics where federal copyright law has yet to settle the issue in the AI context. A ruling that AI generators must license artist likenesses and recordings would raise costs across the generative music sector, while a win for the platform could widen the room for models trained on existing catalogs.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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