Warner Music Group (WMG) CEO Robert Kyncl penned an internal memo to his staff on Wednesday (Sept. 9), touting Suno’s new AI music model launch as “the first time [Warner Music Group] talent has been able to participate in revenue from music creation in addition to music consumption.” The note, obtained by Billboard, came just hours after Suno debuted v6, the AI company’s first models to be created in partnership with WMG, BMG and Believe. According to Suno, the v6 line was trained on material provided by WMG, BMG and Believe, and the three music firms will be compensated for their partnership through a revenue share system.
“Today marks a milestone in our mission to protect our artists and songwriters and bring them opportunity in a rapidly changing world,” Kyncl began in the letter. “These [new models from Suno] must be fully licensed, per the terms of our agreement, and they roll out as Suno shuts down the original model that it had trained on the works of artists and songwriters, including our own, without permission. That was also a requirement of our deal. For rightsholders everywhere, this is a smart win.”
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He added that “licensing is the most effective lever we have to protect our artists and songwriters and create opportunity for them on our own timetable,” but that licensing is just one part of the company’s “3-L strategy,” which stands for licensing, litigation and legislation. Back in June 2024, Warner banded together with the other two major music companies, Universal Music Group and Sony Music, to sue Suno, alleging the copyright infringement of their sound recordings. Towards the end of 2025, WMG made peace with the AI company, forming a “partnership” which effectively settled its part of the lawsuit against Suno. (UMG and Sony Music’s part of the lawsuit is still ongoing).
As part of that pact, Suno agreed to make several changes to its platform, including “launching new, more advanced and licensed models” and deprecating the then-current ones. It also noted that Suno would introduce download restrictions in the future for all account tiers and that free accounts, in particular, would no longer have download capabilities at all. Suno has since upheld all of those stipulations, except that free tier users still have a limit of seven all-time downloads available.
Kyncl noted in his Sept. 9 memo that this is just the start of many new income streams to come as AI music develops: “This new creation-based revenue stream will only grow as our other partners — from DSPs like Spotify to startups like Udio, Klay and Stability — launch their own AI-powered fan-engagement tiers and platforms that allow fans to remix and interact with music they know and love.”
Still, the company is pursuing the other two Ls — litigation and legislation — to continue to shape the future of AI in the industry. Kyncl writes about Warner’s support of the NO FAKES Act and its recent litigation against Anthropic. “We’re still litigating when we need to,” he vowed. “Last month, we sued Anthropic for torrenting millions of our copyrighted song lyrics from pirate websites to train its Claude models and generate infringing outputs.”
Read the full memo below:
Hi everyone,
Today marks a milestone in our mission to protect our artists and songwriters and bring them opportunity in a rapidly changing world.
Because of the deal our team deftly negotiated less than a year ago, Suno today introduced what it’s calling a new generation of models, v6, developed with industry partners including Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe. These models must be fully licensed, per the terms of our agreement, and they roll out as Suno shuts down the original model that it had trained on the works of artists and songwriters, including our own, without permission. That was also a requirement of our deal.
For rightsholders everywhere, this is a smart win. In a growing sea of free, open-source models generating everything from feature films to full-length books, we need to keep users on the platforms that commit to licensed models that allow us to both safeguard and compensate creators. Suno is now one of those platforms.
Starting today, our artists and songwriters will share in the revenue generated by Suno’s more than 2 million paying subscribers, marking the first time our talent has been able to participate in revenue from music creation in addition to music consumption. This new creation-based revenue stream will only grow as our other partners – from DSPs like Spotify to startups like Udio, Klay and Stability – launch their own AI-powered fan-engagement tiers and platforms that allow fans to remix and interact with music they know and love.
Licensing is the most effective lever we have to protect our artists and songwriters and create opportunity for them on our own timetable: We were able to secure important protections for our talent in our Suno deal, from takedown rights to download limits to watermarked outputs.
But licensing is just one part of our 3-L strategy: legislation and litigation are still important too. Legislatively, as you know, we have been working hard to pass the bipartisan NO FAKES Act that would create a federal property right in every individual’s visual likeness and voice, while lobbying lawmakers around the world not to grant so-called text-and-data-mining exceptions to existing law that allow AI companies to train on copyrighted material without permission.
And we’re still litigating when we need to: last month, we sued Anthropic for torrenting millions of our copyrighted song lyrics from pirate websites to train its Claude models and generate infringing outputs.
I’m proud to be part of a team that is innovative, daring and executes with precision on protecting the rights of our artists, songwriters and our own IP. Thank you all for your tireless dedication as we continue firing on all fronts to defend and support the hard-working, talented creators who drive our business.
Robert
