Suno Rolls Out Watermarking and Download Restrictions Amid Legal Battles

Suno, the AI-music generation platform, announced a suite of measures aimed at curbing “spammy” AI tracks and improving transparency. The company will embed audio watermarks and fingerprinting into generated songs, update community guidelines to ban deceptive audio and unauthorized use of a person’s voice or likeness, and introduce a revised download policy that limits mass distribution on streaming services. The rollout follows a blog post by co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman outlining the platform’s principles and next steps.

TechCrunchThe Verge

Suno is currently defending multiple lawsuits filed by major record labels, including a case coordinated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) involving Universal Music Group and Sony Music Group. A German court recently ruled in favor of the licensing agency GEMA, finding Suno in violation of copyright rules. The company also previously settled with Warner Music Group (WMG) after a similar dispute involving the platform Udio, which led to a halt of downloads of AI-generated outputs. In addition, 404 Media reported a data breach in November 2025 that exposed Suno’s training data scraped from YouTube, Deezer and Genius.

TechCrunch

“These tools are designed to be durable and resistant to tampering, without affecting the listening experience.

TechCrunch

Suno disclosed that it raised $400 million in a Series D funding round in June. The startup also signed an agreement with lyrics provider Musixmatch to employ its Sentinel system for copyright detection, complementing the planned watermarking and fingerprinting infrastructure.

TechCrunch

Suno has not provided a timeline for the deployment of the watermarking system or the specifics of the new download limits. The company declined further comment on how the measures will be enforced across third-party streaming platforms.

TechCrunch