The American Federation of Musicians has filed a federal lawsuit against Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, accusing both labels of licensing members' music to AI music generators without compensating the artists who made them.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday (June 5), centers on the labels' settlements and licensing deals with Suno and Udio.
The AFM contends those arrangements triggered the "new uses" provision of its collective bargaining agreement, which requires major labels to pay musicians when their work is put to new commercial applications, according to Billboard.
The AFM complaint spells out the core grievance directly: "Defendants have failed to share in the settlement proceeds and future revenue with those same artists whose music was copied, used for training, and incorporated into the development of the AI models and platforms now being commercially exploited."
The union, represented by attorney Eyad Asad of Cohen Weiss & Simon, is seeking unspecified monetary damages and also demanding that the labels disclose exactly which recordings were fed into the AI training programs.
UMG reached a settlement and partnership with Udio in late October 2025, followed by WMG's own deal with Udio in mid-November 2025. WMG subsequently became the first major label to settle with Suno, also in November 2025.
The AFM argues that those resolutions protected the labels' financial interests while leaving musicians out entirely. "While the defendants protected their own interests and created a significant source of new revenue with the retrospective settlements and prospective licenses, they have refused to compensate the musicians whose work — created with their own instruments and through their talent, creativity, and hard work — is fed into AI machines for profit," the complaint reads.
Both labels pushed back on the suit, with a UMG spokesperson saying the company has been "at the forefront of protecting the rights and advancing the interests of artists and songwriters in the age of AI." They added that the AFM "chose this route during our collective bargaining negotiations" and that UMG intends to resolve outstanding issues through those talks.
WMG called the lawsuit "unproductive" and said it looks forward to resuming scheduled negotiations, framing its Suno deal as part of a broader effort to "architect a healthy AI ecosystem on behalf of artists everywhere."
The filing lands two days after Suno announced a $400 million Series D funding round valuing the company at $5.4 billion, a more than twofold jump from the $2.45 billion valuation it carried seven months earlier.
Suno CEO Mikey Shulman said the capital will help more people express themselves through music, and confirmed a new model built on the WMG partnership is planned for release in the coming months.
"This funding will help us accelerate what matters most: helping more people express themselves through music, while continuing to expand what’s possible for artists and creators on Suno," Shulman said at the time.
Meanwhile, UMG's copyright case against Suno remains active, with UMG and Sony last month adding more than 61,000 additional copyrighted songs to their complaint after discovering them during discovery.
