Tracks by iconic artists including Beyoncé, Elvis Presley, and Harry Styles are at the heart of a major legal battle over generative artificial intelligence. Sony Music Entertainment has filed a new lawsuit in a New York court against AI music generator Udio, accusing the company of illegally copying and ingesting more than 30,000 copyrighted songs to train its AI models.
The dispute stems from an ongoing confrontation between major record labels and AI music developers. In 2024, Sony, Universal Music Group (UMG), and Warner Records jointly sued Udio and rival AI developer Suno. During the discovery phase of that earlier litigation, Sony utilized audio fingerprinting techniques to analyze Udio's training data. The investigation revealed tens of thousands of additional recordings—including Elvis Presley’s "Hound Dog," Beyoncé’s "Say My Name," and Harry Styles’ "As It Was"—that Sony claims were unauthorizedly ingested into Udio's software.
Although Sony attempted to add these 30,000 titles to the original 2024 lawsuit, a judge rejected the motion, limiting that case to 333 works. Consequently, Sony launched this separate suit dedicated specifically to the newly uncovered song catalog. Sony is seeking an injunction to stop Udio from using its catalog and is demanding statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work.
The legal landscape surrounding AI music generation remains complicated and fragmented. Udio has previously acknowledged that its generative models were built by processing vast quantities of sound recordings, including content from YouTube. While Sony continues its legal action, other industry giants like UMG and Warner Music Group have chosen a different path, settling their previous disputes with Udio to form commercial partnerships as the music industry increasingly adapts to generative AI tools.