Universal strikes deal with AI startup Udio to settle lawsuit and launch licensed music platform

Dubai: Universal Music Group NV signed an agreement with artificial intelligence-powered music startup Udio to settle a copyright lawsuit and collaborate on a new commercial music creation and streaming service.

Udio will launch the new platform next year, powered by AI technology trained on licensed music from Universal’s artists. The subscription-based service will create a new user experience for fans to customize, stream and share music responsibly, according to a statement from Universal on Wednesday.

Universal’s artists, who include Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Elton John, will be compensated by the legal settlement and the new license agreements for recorded music and publishing will create further revenue opportunities for UMG artists and songwriters, according to the statement.

“These new agreements with Udio demonstrate our commitment to do what’s right by our artists and songwriters,” said Lucian Grainge, chief executive officer of Universal Music, the world’s biggest record label. Working with Udio, “we can foster a healthy commercial AI ecosystem in which artists, songwriters, music companies and technology companies can all flourish and create incredible experiences for fans.” 

Universal, along with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, sued Udio and Suno — another AI music startup — last year, alleging the companies unlawfully trained their AI models on massive amounts of copyrighted sound recordings. Suno and Udio are among the pioneering crop of startups that use generative AI to automate the music-making process, creating new songs from text prompts. 

Financial terms of the legal settlement weren’t disclosed.

Udio’s existing product will remain available to creators until the new product launch, but content will be controlled “within a walled garden,” and the service will be amended to include fingerprinting, filtering, and other measure.