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Warner Music Group has settled a copyright infringement lawsuit against artificial intelligence music creation platform Udio and announced a new agreement that will see the two companies work together on a new artificial intelligence music platform.
In a joint statement Wednesday, the companies said Udio will develop a music “creation, listening and discovery platform” to launch in 2026, using generative artificial intelligence trained on licensed and authorized music.
“Our new platform will give fans the opportunity to create with their favorite artists and create extraordinary music in an environment that offers artists control and connection,” Udio co-founder and CEO Andrew Sanchez said in a statement.
The new Udio platform will allow users to create new songs, remixes and covers using the work of artists who choose to participate. According to the release, these artists and songwriters will receive rewards and recognition.
Ed Sheeran, Fleetwood Mac, Dua Lipa and Zac Bryan are some of the artists represented by Warner.
Financial details of the settlement and agreement were not disclosed.
The deal is Udio's second with a major music company: Just last month, Universal Music Group announced a very similar agreement to settle its lawsuit with Udio and a partner in a new artificial intelligence music platform.
It's also just one of a handful of agreements signed in recent days between artificial intelligence startups and major music companies.
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On Thursday, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment signed separate deals with startup Klay Vision.
Details about what Glue isFerry and his deals with companies are rare. According to Warner, the terms of their deal will help Clay “further develop music experiences for fans by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, while fully respecting the rights of artists, songwriters and rights holders,” according to the announcement.
On Wednesday, Warner also announced a third deal with Stability AI to develop artificial intelligence tools for songwriters, artists and producers.
Similar to Udio's deal with Universal
The agreement between Udio and Warner mirrors the agreement signed between Udio and Universal Music Group last month.
On October 29, the music group and the AI startup said they had settled a copyright infringement lawsuit and entered into new licensing agreements allowing Udio to use authorized music on its AI music platform.
Previously, the Udio platform allowed users to upload tracks created using written prompts. But after the deal was signed, Udio stopped. allowing its users to upload their creationswhich caused a negative reaction from users.
Udio's founder and CEO said in a statement that the deal will combine music with artificial intelligence “in a way that will truly support artists.” And while industry group the Music Artists Coalition said allowing artists to consent to and control the use of their music was promising, they cautioned that questions remain.
“We've seen this before – everyone talks about 'partnerships,' but artists find themselves on the sidelines with notes. Artists need to have creative control, fair compensation and clarity about deals made based on their catalogues,” Irving Azoff, board member and founder of the Music Artists Coalition, said in a statement.
More than 200 performers, including Sheryl Crow and the heirs of Bob Marley, wrote a letter asking for protection from the unethical use of artificial intelligence, such as the unauthorized reproduction of their voices and images.
Last month's deal with Universal and Udio was the first following lawsuits that have put artificial intelligence startups at odds with major music acts. Universal, Warner and Sony sued both Udio and another AI-powered music platform, Suno, for copyright infringement in 2024, accusing them of using the recorded works of their artists to train their AI tools without compensation.
Udio and Suno said using copyrighted sound recordings to train their systems qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright law and called the lawsuits attempts to stifle independent competition.
Sony is the only major music company that has not yet reached a deal with Unio.
The Growing Presence of Artificial Intelligence in Music
The deal marks another step in the gradual penetration of AI into the music industry.
Artificial intelligence-generated music has flooded streaming services amid the rise of chatbot-like song generators that instantly spit out new tunes based on suggestions typed by users without any musical knowledge.
Earlier this month, AI artist Xania Monet became the first bot-powered artist to debut on the Billboard airplay chart.
Indie rock band The Velvet Sundown turned out to be an AI dupe, despite racking up more than a million monthly listeners on Spotify by early July. These numbers have since dropped. Music acts The Devil Inside, Aventthis and Nick Hustles are others who achieved some level of success on streaming before the creators behind them claimed they were created by artificial intelligence.
A recent Deezer and Ipsos poll found that a whopping 97 percent of list membersUsers are unable to distinguish songs created by artificial intelligence from songs written by humans, raising fears that artificial intelligence could upend the way music is created, consumed and monetized.
