Music Industry Moves: Warner Music Group Inks Deal With Suno; Settles Copyright Lawsuit Against AI Music Generator

Warner Music Group has settled its infringement lawsuit against AI music generation platform Suno. The news was confirmed Tuesday with WMG becoming the first of the major record labels to officially partner with the company, sharing goals of “compensating and protecting artists, songwriters, and the wider creative community.”

The deal brings together Suno’s AI capabilities with WMG’s artist development. In 2026, Suno is said to make several changes to the platform, including launching “new, more advanced and licensed models.” When the new models launch in 2026, the current models will be terminated.

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Robert Kyncl, CEO, WMG said: “This landmark pact with Suno is a victory for the creative community that benefits everyone. With Suno rapidly scaling, both in users and monetization, we’ve seized this opportunity to shape models that expand revenue and deliver new fan experiences. AI becomes pro-artist when it adheres to our principles: committing to licensed models, reflecting the value of music on and off platform, and providing artists and songwriters with an opt-in for the use of their name, image, likeness, voice and compositions in new AI songs.”

Mikey Shulman, CEO, Suno added: “Our partnership with Warner Music unlocks a bigger, richer Suno experience for music lovers, and accelerates our mission to change the place of music in the world by making it more valuable to billions of people. Together, we can enhance how music is made, consumed, experienced and shared. This means we’ll be rolling out new, more robust features for creation, opportunities to collaborate and interact with some of the most talented musicians in the world, all while continuing to build the biggest music ecosystem possible.”

With a goal to continue building with the music community, Suno has also acquired Songkick, the live music, concert-discovery platform, from Warner Music Group, and will continue to run it.

+ ASCAP has named Marc Zelanko to a new role as chief of staff, reporting to ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. Zelanko is a seasoned business operations executive with experience managing operations, partnerships, transformation and chief-of-staff functions to spur growth and drive efficiency in IP-led media and entertainment companies.

For more than two decades, Zelanko was an executive at Paramount Global (Viacom, CBS, MTV Networks), where he led strategic initiatives that drove growth, strengthened operations and created efficiencies across complex global teams.

Matthews commented: “Marc is the perfect fit to help ASCAP deliver on our mission to grow revenues and drive efficiencies for the benefit of our more than 1.1 million songwriters, composers and music publishers. He brings a wealth of experience working cross-functionally to lead complex global initiatives, and we are excited to add him to our senior leadership team.”

Zelanko said: “ASCAP has a mindset of innovation and evolution to meet the changing needs of its members and licensees. I look forward to bringing my expertise to ASCAP’s mission in support of improving the future for its songwriters, composers and music publishers.”