Suno Faces Major Challenges with Music Copyright Issues

Suno, an AI music platform, has a strict policy against the use of copyrighted material. Users can upload their own tracks for remixing or pair original lyrics with AI-generated music. The platform is designed to detect and block copyrighted songs and lyrics, but it turns out that its copyright filters can be surprisingly easy to bypass.

With just a bit of effort and some free software, users can create AI-generated versions of well-known songs like Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” and Aqua’s “Barbie Girl,” which bear a striking resemblance to the originals. While most listeners might notice the differences, some could easily mistake these for alternate takes or B-sides. There’s even a risk that someone could monetize these uncanny covers by exporting them and uploading them to streaming services. Suno has not provided any comments on this issue.

To create these covers, users need to access Suno Studio, which is part of the company’s $24-a-month Premier Plan. Instead of generating an entire song from scratch, Suno Studio allows users to upload a track for editing or covering. While the system is likely to flag a well-known hit without any modifications, simple tweaks using a basic tool like Audacity—such as slowing down or speeding up a track—can often slip past the filters. Adding a burst of white noise at the beginning and end seems to ensure success. Users can then restore the original speed and remove the noise in Suno Studio, turning the copyrighted song into a foundation for new AI music.

When generating a cover without any style transfers, Suno typically produces an instrumental arrangement that closely resembles the original, with only minor adjustments if using model 4.5 or 4.5+. The newer model v5 takes more creative liberties, adding elements like chugging guitar and galloping piano to “Freedom” and transforming the Dead Kennedys’ “California Über Alles” into a fiddle-driven jig.

Suno also allows users to add vocals by generating lyrics or typing in words, with the expectation that it will block copyrighted content. If users copy and paste official lyrics from a site, Suno will flag them and produce nonsensical vocals. However, even slight modifications can bypass this filter.

I managed to trick Suno Studio by altering the spelling of a few words in “Freedom”—changing “rain on this bitter love” to “reign on” and “tell the sweet I’m new” to “tell the suite.” Beyond the first verse and chorus, I didn’t need to make many changes. The AI voice closely mimics the original, producing slightly off-brand versions of artists like Ozzy or Beyoncé.

Indie artists may not receive the same level of protection. During my testing of model v5, one of my own songs passed through the copyright filter without any alterations. I also managed to get tracks from singer-songwriter Matt Wilson, Charles Bissell’s “Car Colors,” and experimental artist Claire Rousay through Suno’s copyright detection without any changes. Artists on smaller labels or those self-distributing through platforms are particularly vulnerable; distribution services have not commented on this issue.

The results of these AI-generated covers fall into the uncanny valley. The songs they mimic are unmistakable—the riff from “Paranoid” is still recognizable, and “Freedom” is clearly identifiable from the moment the marching snare kicks in. However, they lack the life and nuance of the originals. Even if AI Ozzy sounds alarmingly accurate, it misses the subtlety and dynamics that make the original performances compelling.

The instrumentals also strip away the unique artistic choices of the originals, often resulting in flat imitations. A non-jig version of “California Über Alles” loses its rough edges, sounding more like a wedding band rendition. Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” transforms from an experimental piece into generic dancefloor filler. While it may capture David Gilmour’s guitar tone, it lacks any sense of phrasing or progression, reducing the solo to a mindless stream of notes.

Creating unauthorized covers goes against Suno’s stated purpose and terms of service. Moreover, it appears that Suno only scans tracks upon upload and does not recheck outputs for potential infringement or rescan tracks before exporting them. This creates a straightforward path for monetizing Suno-generated covers. Users could upload these tracks through a distribution service and profit from others’ songs without paying the usual royalties owed to the original composers. Independent artists are particularly at risk.

Folk artist Murphy Campbell recently faced this issue when someone uploaded what seemed to be AI covers of her YouTube songs to her Spotify profile. The source of these covers remains unclear. Shortly after, the distributor filed copyright claims against her YouTube videos and began collecting royalties on them. Ironically, the songs for which claims were filed are all in the public domain. Eventually, Spotify removed the AI covers, and the distributor rescinded its claims, but only after a social media campaign by Campbell. The distributor claims the two incidents are unrelated and not connected to the AI covers of her work.

AI imitations pose a threat to other artists as well. Experimental composer William Basinski and indie rock group King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard have seen their works slip through various filters and appear on streaming platforms. Sometimes, these fake songs can even siphon views directly from the artists’ own pages. In a landscape where payouts are already minimal—Spotify requires at least 1,000 streams for payment—lesser-known musicians are hit the hardest.

Streaming services like Deezer, Qobuz, and Spotify are taking steps to combat spammy AI and impersonators. A spokesperson for Spotify stated that the company is serious about protecting artists’ rights and employs multiple strategies to prevent unauthorized content from being uploaded, including systems to identify duplicate or highly similar tracks, backed by human review. However, no system is foolproof, and keeping up with the influx of AI-generated content from platforms like Suno remains a challenge.

The spokesperson acknowledged the technical difficulties involved, stating, “It’s an area we’re continuing to invest in and evolve, especially as new technologies emerge.”

Suno is just one part of a clearly flawed system, but it offers artists little recourse to fight back. Bands can reach out to Spotify to have AI fakes removed from their profiles, but determining how those fakes were generated and whether they stem from Suno’s filter failures is more complicated. So far, Suno has remained silent on these issues.