Musicians Sue AI Music Platform Suno Over Unauthorised Use of Their Identities

A group of four musicians—Jason Isbell, David Lowery, Guy Forsyth and Eduardo Calle—filed a proposed class-action suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on Monday, August 31. The plaintiffs seek statutory and punitive damages, a court order barring Suno from exploiting their names, images and likenesses, and certification that the case may proceed as a class action representing other performers.

Reuters

Suno, founded in 2022, lets users create songs by entering short text prompts. The platform has attracted investment that values it at $5.4 billion and reports more than 2 million paid subscribers. Parallel lawsuits by major labels focus on alleged copyright infringement for training on millions of recordings. The Isbell-led action targets “rights of publicity”—the legal right to control commercial use of one’s name, image and likeness—rather than copyright in the underlying works.

Billboard

• Jason Isbell – Grammy-winning Americana singer-songwriter, lead plaintiff.

Jason Isbell, David Lowery, & More Sue Suno For Violating Rights Of Publicity

• David Lowery – frontman of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, co-plaintiff.

Jason Isbell Sues Suno Alleging AI System Is Using Musicians’ Identities Without Consent

• Guy Forsyth – Texas blues musician, co-plaintiff.

Jason Isbell leads class action against AI music generator Suno

• Eduardo Calle – Florida-based jazz saxophonist, co-plaintiff.

Jason Isbell leads class action against AI music generator Suno

• Alan D. Rose – attorney for the musicians.

Jason Isbell leads class action against AI music generator Suno

• Mikey Shulman – Suno’s CEO.

Variety Magazine

• Suno’s most recent financing round raised more than $400 million.

Jason Isbell and David Lowery are suing Suno in a class action suit. Importantly, they’re hitting Mikey Shulman’s company with identity claims – not copyright.

• The company projects revenue of $1 billion by 2028.

Jason Isbell and David Lowery are suing Suno in a class action suit. Importantly, they’re hitting Mikey Shulman’s company with identity claims – not copyright.

• Suno claims to have processed “tens of millions of recordings” to train its models.

Jason Isbell and David Lowery are suing Suno in a class action suit. Importantly, they’re hitting Mikey Shulman’s company with identity claims – not copyright.

Attorney Alan D. Rose alleges that Suno’s filters can be bypassed by inserting spaces between letters of a name, allowing users to generate tracks that imitate the artists’ vocal characteristics and visual branding.

Variety Magazine

Suno maintains that its platform does not retain artist names in metadata and that prompts for specific artists are blocked. The complaint counters that Suno “accepts names” and that users have produced examples such as an Americana track titled “Paper Bell” for Jason Isbell and a Michael Jackson-style song called “Glovebox Moonwalk” by entering spaced-out letters of the artists’ names. The dispute over whether Suno’s technical safeguards are effective remains unresolved, and the court has not yet ruled on the adequacy of the plaintiffs’ evidence of “voiceprints” or biometric data collection.

Jason Isbell and David Lowery are suing Suno in a class action suit. Importantly, they’re hitting Mikey Shulman’s company with identity claims – not copyright.

If the court grants relief, Suno’s name-indexed generation could be forced to obtain explicit consent for each performer, reshaping how AI music services monetize “identity” features. The case highlights a legal frontier where rights of publicity intersect with AI training practices, potentially influencing future licensing agreements between AI firms and record labels.

Jason Isbell Sues Suno Alleging AI System Is Using Musicians’ Identities Without Consent

• “A musician’s identity is their property, but Suno took it without consent,” — Alan D. Rose, attorney

Variety Magazine

• “Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone’s name,” — Suno spokesperson

Billboard