MBW Explains is a series of analytical features in which we explore the context behind major music industry talking points – and suggest what might happen next. Only MBW+ subscribers have unlimited access to these articles.
Suno is about to switch off every AI music model it currently runs.
“Soon, we’ll introduce a new generation of Suno models, developed in partnership with the music industry,” the company wrote on Monday (August 10). “When the new models launch, all prior models will be retired.”
That is the reason for everything else. In the eight days to Thursday (August 13), Suno made five announcements that reshape the commercial life of a Suno song.
A licensing deal with BMG, download caps, watermarking and fingerprinting, a rebuilt production suite and a plan to press AI-generated songs onto vinyl.
Three of them divide neatly. The BMG deal supplies the rights; the caps and the watermarks supply the controls. The other two are new exits: one professional, one physical.
1. BMG has licensed Suno – and BMG never sued Suno
BMG and Suno announced a global alliance on Wednesday (August 12) covering BMG‘s recorded music and music publishing repertoire.
It covers artists and songwriters who choose to participate, and settles Suno‘s prior use of BMG recordings and publishing works.
That last point looks like Warner Music Group‘s deal, but it isn’t. BMG was not a plaintiff in the RIAA-coordinated litigation filed against Suno in 2024, so there was no lawsuit to settle – only past use to pay for.
BMG is the first significant rightsholder to license Suno since Warner settled its own case in November 2025, as MBW reported.
“We believe the future of music will be more participatory, creating entirely new ways for artists and fans to connect,” said Mikey Shulman, Suno co-founder and CEO.
“Building that future responsibly means working directly with the people who make music and the companies that represent them. Together with BMG, we can develop new experiences that give artists and songwriters real choice, generate new revenue, and make music a bigger part of people’s lives.”
“The future of AI in music will be defined by whether artists and songwriters remain at the center of the opportunity and share in the value it creates. Choice is the guiding principle,” said Celine Joshua, EVP of Global Marketing and Streaming at BMG.
“This agreement establishes strong protections, clear economics, and new creative possibilities for artists and their fans. As we enter the era of creation, we look forward to shaping that future together with our creators and Suno.”
2. From September 3, a download is the license to release a song
Suno confirmed on Monday (August 10) that free users will get up to seven lifetime trial downloads, Pro subscribers 20 a month and Premier subscribers 60 a month.
The number matters less than what a download will buy. From September 3, a song sitting in a paying subscriber’s library cannot be released, sold or licensed until a download has been spent on it, as MBW reported.
Free-tier downloads carry no commercial rights, so a free user cannot put a Suno track on Spotify or sell it.
A download cap is therefore a toll on getting Suno output onto a streaming service, with extra downloads available to buy.
“As our platform grows, limiting downloads will make it harder for bad actors to mass-export music,” Suno wrote.
Rival Udio went further, disabling downloads outright after settling with Universal Music Group in October 2025, under the “walled garden” model UMG introduced.
Suno kept downloads. From September, it meters them.
3. The watermarks plug into a penalty system that already bills distributors
On August 6, Shulman said transparency tools were rolling out so songs made on Suno can be identified elsewhere.
“In the coming weeks, we will also be adopting new audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology so we can partner more closely with distribution platforms on combatting fraud and misuse,” Shulman wrote. “These tools are designed to be durable and resistant to tampering, without affecting the listening experience.”
Those distribution platforms have a direct financial reason to want it. Since April 2024, Spotify has charged labels and distributors a €10 monthly fee for each track on which it detects “flagrant” artificial streaming.
Distributors pass the bill down. TuneCore charges the fee to the account holder, levies it again every month a track reappears in Spotify‘s fraud report, and warns that flagged tracks are removed everywhere and cannot be redistributed.
Spotify says it removed more than 75 million spammy tracks in the 12 months to September 2025, and has since rolled out a filter that tags offending uploaders and their tracks, and stops recommending them.
Spotify‘s track-level AI credits, though, depend on the uploader volunteering the information.
“Because we depend on artist disclosure, the absence of a credit doesn’t mean AI wasn’t used,” Spotify concedes.
On August 11, Spotify went further. From mid-September, it will apply “AI Persona” badges to profiles whose public identity it judges to be an AI-generated photorealistic human, disclosed or not, and keep them out of its recommendations by default. The badge marks the artist, not the track: a Suno song released under a real person’s profile does not get one.
A tamper-resistant watermark would close the rest of the gap. It would let distributors identify Suno output at intake, before they take on the liability.
The August 6 post added a second layer, naming Audible Magic and Musixmatch among the providers screening uploaded audio and lyrics. Musixmatch said the same day that Suno is the first customer for Sentinel, its copyright detection system, which screens prompts and outputs against existing compositions and lyrics. One tool marks what Suno makes; the other checks what it borrows.
4. Studio 2.0 is the carve-out from the caps
Suno launched Studio 2.0 on Thursday (August 13), adding MIDI, a chat bar in beta, stem separation, audio effects and automation.
“MIDI has been the most requested addition to Studio. Now, you can import, record and edit MIDI directly on the timeline, and design your own sounds with our new wavetable synth,” wrote Henry Phipps, Suno‘s Studio Product Manager.
Premier subscribers can export 32-bit/48kHz multitracks and stems from Studio “without limitations,” placing Studio, not the Premier tier, outside the caps. The one route out of the platform Suno left unmetered is the professional one.
Suno Studio launched in September 2025, in beta for Premier subscribers, built on the company’s WavTool acquisition.
5. Vinyl would be revenue that never touches a DSP
On August 6, Suno opened a waitlist for Suno Vinyl, which will turn songs made on the platform into physical records, as MBW reported.
Users will compile up to 46 minutes from their library and receive a 12-inch black PETG record, priced at an estimated USD $45 plus shipping.
Suno says every record is “a genuine pressed record, not a novelty cut.” A spokesperson told MBW the service is part of an effort to explore ways to give people physical versions of the music they create.
It would also monetize a Suno song that never enters the streaming supply chain, and so never triggers a fee for anyone.
The legal backdrop
UMG, Sony Music and Warner sued Suno and Udio in 2024 in a case coordinated by the RIAA alleging “mass infringement” of copyright. UMG and Sony Music remain plaintiffs against Suno.
They are seeking to add 61,026 works to the case, up from an initial 560 recordings – a move that could raise maximum statutory damages to more than USD $9 billion. Suno is opposing the motion, and a New York judge has already refused Sony Music‘s near-identical bid to add 30,442 recordings to the Udio case.
On July 31, the Munich Regional Court ruled that Suno had infringed copyright in a case brought by GEMA. Suno says it is evaluating all available options, including an appeal. The judgment is not final.
Denmark’s Koda is also litigating, as are independent artists in the US.
Running alongside is a dispute over who gets paid. The American Federation of Musicians sued UMG and Warner on June 5 in the Southern District of New York, claiming the majors licensed members’ recordings to Udio and, in Warner‘s case, Suno, “without compensation or credit.” The union amended its complaint on July 24, naming Warner Records and Atlantic Recording Corp. after Warner Music Group argued the parent company was not a proper party.
The claim rests on Article 21(a) of the Sound Recording Labor Agreement, which the AFM says requires signatories to pay musicians for a new use.
Both majors dispute that the provision requires payment for the AI use. UMG asked the court to dismiss the case on August 5, arguing the agreement fixes no rate for the use.
“A payment measured by an agreement that does not exist is no payment at all,” UMG‘s lawyers wrote. Sony Music is not a party.
Which is the shape of Suno‘s eight days: some of the rights cleared, the controls built and the question of what reaches musicians still with a judge.Music Business Worldwide
