Sony Music Entertainment filed a lawsuit in a New York court accusing Udio, an artificial intelligence-powered music generator, of copyright infringement involving more than 30,000 of the company’s recordings. The list of disputed works spans decades of music and includes tracks by prominent artists such as Elvis Presley, Beyoncé, and Harry Styles.
The legal action represents an escalation of Sony’s dispute with the AI company. In 2024, Sony joined Universal Music Group and Warner Records in filing an initial lawsuit against both Udio and Suno, another AI music platform. During the discovery process, Sony obtained access to Udio’s training data and used audio fingerprinting technology to identify additional copyrighted works it claims were incorporated into the company’s generative AI models without authorization. Sony had previously sought to add these more than 30,000 works to the original case, but a judge declined to allow the expansion, keeping the initial lawsuit focused on 333 specific compositions.
Sony now pursues the larger catalog of allegedly infringed works through this new lawsuit. The company states the list may grow further as it continues its investigation. According to Sony’s filing, Udio acknowledged that its generative AI models were constructed by training on extensive quantities of sound recordings, including content sourced from YouTube.
The dispute reflects ongoing tensions between the music industry and artificial intelligence companies over training data practices. Unlike Sony, both Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have reached settlements with Udio and established partnerships with the company as major record labels increasingly engage with AI technology. Sony is seeking injunctive relief to prevent further infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work.