Suno rebuilds its AI music models on licensed Warner and BMG catalogues
- Suno launched its Suno v6 model family on September 9, trained on licensed music from Warner, BMG and Believe, and began retiring all of its earlier models.
- Settled labels are now set to earn revenue from the models and build remix features, while the training details and artist payment terms remain undisclosed.
- Suno still faces lawsuits from Sony, Universal and others, and a German court has already found it infringed copyright.
Suno replaced its entire AI music engine with a new model family, Suno v6, which has been trained on licensed material from Warner Music Group, BMG, and distributor Believe. The change is a direct response to the copyright suits that have shaken the startup over the past months, and shows that record labels are interested in building products with AI companies.
The launch includes three tiers, with the flagship v6 positioned as the most precise and polished option. The v6-wild model is designed as a more experimental counterpart aimed at less predictable results, while v6-mini is the faster model available on the free tier. Only v6-mini will be available to free users, while the other two models will be limited to Suno’s Pro and Premier subscribers, TechCrunch reported.
Everything before v6 has been decommissioned, and the company stated in its announcement that all previous models will be retired as Suno will move “entirely onto the v6 generation.”
Suno claims v6 can edit a selected section of a track using a text prompt and replace a single lyric without regenerating the entire song. The new model can also create mashups from multiple sources, isolate instruments for sampling, and use text, audio, images, or video as references.
Legal settlement required new models
Warner’s November 2025 settlement with Suno required a specific commitment to ship more advanced licensed models and retire the previous ones. The models that replaced the contested versions were co-developed with the same label that had taken Suno to court.
Chief product officer Jack Brody said the release was focused on remuneration for rights holders. “From the day it launches on September 9, this partnership starts generating revenue for our partners,” he stated, adding that the models open the door to remix and artist-participation features that would create “additional revenue streams” for participating artists.
Artists working with Believe can opt into the new Suno experiences, while Suno-made songs can become eligible for distribution through Believe and TuneCore, giving AI-generated tracks a path to conventional music platforms.
Suno discloses little about data
For a launch built on the line between licensed and unlicensed training of AI models, Suno said almost nothing about the data itself. When asked how the models were built, Brody refused to give any specifics, stating that “the v6 family has been trained from the ground up with a new set of data that differs from the data that went into our previous models,” including “licensed data from our partners and user data.”
Artist payments are also vague, and Suno says musicians can opt in and be paid when they take part; however, there are no definite payment structures in place yet.
Suno is valued at around $5.4 billion, and the company has raised more than $819 million.
Legal battles are far from over
Settling with Warner and BMG has not completely cleared Suno’s legal slate, with the company still facing suits from Sony and Universal Music Group, and artists including Jason Isbell. There are also still some suits from users who allege the AI model neglected security while chasing profit.
Europe seems to be on a totally different track, as a German court, in a case brought by the collecting society GEMA, ruled this year that Suno breached copyright terms. This is the very first such decision on the continent. Rival Udio, meanwhile, is also being sued by Sony over 30,000 songs, with $4.5 billion sought in payments.
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Opeyemi Olanrewaju
Opeyemi specializes in creating and refining high-quality content focused on cryptocurrency, global financial markets and the economy. He graduated from the University of Ibadan with an MBBS degree. He has worked as Editor-in-Chief for his College’s editorial publication and previously at CFA. For over six years, he has helped safeguard uniqueness as news editor at Cryptopolitan.
