Major US music labels have revealed that the American generative artificial intelligence (AI) music company Suno used songs by global K-pop stars like Psy and BTS for AI training without permission. This finding comes from a leaked copyright infringement recording list submitted to the US District Court for Massachusetts by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment last month as part of an ongoing lawsuit.
Massive Copyright Infringement Claims Involving K-Pop Hits
Universal and Sony claim that 60,202 songs suffered copyright infringement. The list features Psy’s iconic tracks ‘Gangnam Style’ and ‘Gentleman’, alongside BTS collaborative tracks ‘Bad Decisions’ (with Benny Blanco and Snoop Dogg) and ‘Waste It On Me’ (with Steve Aoki). Additionally, Will.i.am’s ‘Gettin’ Dumb’, which featured 2NE1, was also confirmed on the infringement log.
The legal battle against Suno began in June 2024 when three major record labels—Universal, Sony, and Warner—filed a joint lawsuit. While Warner later reached a settlement with Suno, Universal and Sony pressed forward with additional litigation last month. The labels are seeking $150,000 (approx. 200 million KRW) per copyrighted work infringed, submitting a staggering 1,882-page document detailing over 60,000 tracks. This compilation was gathered through discovery proceedings allowing plaintiffs to examine Suno’s source code and training materials.
Suno’s Defense and Global Legal Ramifications
The 60,000 songs listed do not represent the entirety of Suno’s training dataset, but rather tracks exclusively owned or managed within the United States by Universal and Sony. For instance, Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ was included because YG Entertainment previously contracted Universal to distribute albums globally outside of South Korea and Japan. In a court filing submitted on the 20th, Suno admitted to using a program called YT-DLP to download audio data from YouTube for AI training. Although Suno confirmed that tens of millions of files—including YouTube sources—were downloaded, the company maintains that its AI training falls under ‘fair use’.
It is highly likely that Suno utilized many more K-pop tracks beyond BTS and Psy. However, identifying the exact scale of Korean music exploited for AI training remains difficult until domestic Korean labels initiate direct legal actions. Meanwhile, domestic agencies have yet to take formal action. The Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) stated on the 27th that it suspects a significant number of musical works were used for AI training and is considering taking legal measures to protect creators’ rights if necessary.
Global Crackdown on Unauthorized AI Training
Unauthorized AI training has sparked legal battles worldwide. Authentic Brand Group, which manages Elvis Presley’s legendary catalog, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against AI firm Anthropic on the 23rd (local time) for unauthorized training on Presley’s tracks. In Germany, the German music copyright organization GEMA secured a major victory in a first-instance ruling last July after suing Suno for unauthorized use of German music. The German court rejected Suno’s argument that AI training constitutes ‘fair use’. Furthermore, GEMA filed another lawsuit against OpenAI for unauthorized training on German lyrics, resulting in a German court largely ruling in favor of GEMA’s claims last November.
