Fears of losses The music industry wants to take decisive action against AI
Start-ups such as Suno and Udio can generate songs from text specifications within seconds. The music industry is now taking action against them.
The music industry is taking legal action against two start-ups that use artificial intelligence to create songs. The US industry association RIAA is accusing the companies Suno and Udio of having trained the AI software with copyrighted music without permission. The RIAA is demanding up to 150,000 dollars per infringement case - which can add up to a huge sum.
With Suno and Udio, you can - similar to image generators, for example - have the computer create pieces of music with the help of text specifications. This could be, for example: Generate a rock song about a dog walking on the beach with a guitar solo. The software would need just a few seconds to do this.
The reproach
Such AI programs must first be trained with large amounts of data. The RIAA accuses the two companies, on behalf of the major music companies, of using their songs for this purpose. According to the statement of claim published on Monday, one of the things it sees as evidence is that music created by the start-ups can sound very similar to copyrighted songs by music stars.
According to the statement of claim, Udio counters that such use of songs is covered by the "fair use" clause of copyright law. RIAA takes a different view. Suno CEO Mikey Shulman emphasized in a statement to the financial service Bloomberg that the software should create new music - and not regurgitate old tracks.
There are also conflicts between AI start-ups and some media organizations and writers. They are suing because AI models have been illegally trained with their texts. Other media, such as the Financial Times or newspapers owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, grant developer companies such as OpenAI access to their archives to train AI in return for license fees.
dpa
