In 2024, Sony, along with Universal Music Group and Warner Records, filed a lawsuit against Udio and the AI music-maker Suno. After gaining access to Udio’s training data through discovery, Sony claims it identified additional songs using an “audio fingerprinting” technique. Sony filed a request to add more than 30,000 songs that Udio allegedly “copied and ingested into its generative AI models,” but a judge later rejected the company’s motion, leaving the scope of the original lawsuit at 333 works.
Sony has now made the more than 30,000 songs the subject of its new lawsuit, which the company says it could expand. It claims Udio “admitted that its generative AI models were ‘constructed by showing the program a vast amount of different kinds of sound recordings,’” including from YouTube. UMG and Warner Music Group have since settled with Udio and are now partnering with the company as the music industry embraces AI.
You can read the full list of songs Sony is suing Udio over in this filing. The company is asking to block Udio from infringing its works, as well as for up to $150,000 per work infringed.