The future of AI music licensing hinges on a federal court battle where Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment are attempting to expand their copyright infringement lawsuit against AI startup Suno to include 61,026 recordings, potentially exposing the company to $9 billion in statutory damages. Suno has formally asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to block this expansion, arguing the labels are improperly attempting to exponentially increase the case scope after years of discovery.
The $9 Billion Statutory Damage Threat
The core of the dispute centers on the sheer volume of alleged infringed works. The original complaint filed in June 2024 named only 560 recordings, carrying a theoretical maximum statutory damage cap of roughly $84 million under current U.S. copyright law for willful infringement. However, after utilizing audio-fingerprinting services to identify their catalog inside Suno’s training data, UMG and Sony filed a motion in May 2026 to add 61,026 works to the suit.
At the statutory ceiling of $150,000 per work for willful infringement, this expanded list would carry a theoretical maximum damage exposure exceeding $9 billion. This figure represents a massive escalation from the original complaint and places the financial viability of the AI company at extreme risk if the court allows the expansion. The labels argue they have the right to seek damages for all copyrighted works infringed, while Suno contends that adding tens of thousands of works near the close of fact discovery would trigger fresh discovery and delay a ruling on its fair use defense.
Fair Use Defense and Industry Precedent
Both sides are expected to move for summary judgment on the critical question of whether training an AI model on copyrighted recordings without a license constitutes fair use. Suno’s legal team has argued that using copyrighted songs for AI model training is transformative use, citing rulings in book-based cases like Andersen v. Stability AI and Kadrey v. Meta Platforms where courts found AI training to be fair use. The labels counter that their AI outputs directly compete with the original recordings used to train the models, a distinction that may prevent the book-case reasoning from applying to music.
The outcome of this Massachusetts case is being watched closely by the wider industry, as it could set a precedent for other AI music companies like Udio and define the leverage in future licensing negotiations. While Warner Music Group settled with Suno in November 2025 to become a licensing partner, UMG and Sony remain the sole plaintiffs pushing for this massive expansion. Fact discovery and depositions in the case are scheduled to close on September 30, 2026, with dispositive motions due in April 2027. Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV has yet to rule on the motion to add the recordings, though Suno is urging him to follow a parallel New York ruling that denied Sony a similar expansion in the Udio case.
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