Suno hopes to go legit with watermarks for AI-generated music

Going legit

While much of the visual media generated by AI has flown under the legal radar, the music industry is famously litigious. Suno is being sued by Universal and Sony for copyright infringement in the US, and a German court recently found the company was violating the country’s music licensing laws. Both cases could lead to hefty fines.

Suno is also in hot water after a hack in late 2025 that showed it scraped content from YouTube, Deezer, and others to train its models. Suno did not disclose the hack, which may have included the private information of millions of users. It’s being sued in Massachusetts over that.

None of that is a good look, so it’s no surprise Suno is looking for ways to change the conversation. The company is essentially positioning itself as a tool for musicians and personal projects, not as a way to generate unlimited slop for Spotify. Shulman stresses in the blog that Suno supports the artistic process, noting that AI technology “can’t replace the human experiences, emotions, and imperfections that make music meaningful.”

That, he claims, is why Suno already has rules designed to guard against misuse. For example, Suno doesn’t allow users to include specific artists or songs in their prompts, and it partners with companies like Musixmatch to ensure people don’t upload copyrighted content to use as a base for their generative compositions. Suno has also strengthened prohibitions against this kind of misuse in an update to its usage policy.

More changes are coming, too. Last year, Suno agreed to limit downloads in a settlement with Warner Music Group. Suno is still working out the specifics, but Shulman says most users won’t be affected. However, limits on downloads, along with watermarking tracks, will apparently help to limit “large-scale abuse.”

Whether these changes will save Suno from its legal woes remains to be seen.