Photo Credit: Sora Shimazaki
Sony Music Entertainment has filed a new copyright infringement lawsuit against AI music generator Udio, accusing the company of using more than 30,000 of its copyrighted sound recordings without permission to train its artificial intelligence models. The complaint marks the latest escalation in the music industry’s ongoing legal battle over generative AI and copyrighted music.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit alleges that Udio unlawfully copied and ingested thousands of Sony-owned recordings into its AI training datasets. According to the filing, the disputed catalogue spans decades of recorded music, from classic artists such as Elvis Presley to contemporary stars including Beyoncé and Harry Styles. Sony argues that the works listed represent only a fraction of the recordings it believes were used without authorisation.
The new case follows a procedural setback earlier this month, when a federal judge denied Sony’s request to expand its original 2024 lawsuit against Udio to include more than 30,000 additional recordings. Rather than amend the existing litigation, Sony has now launched a separate legal action covering those alleged infringements.
Sony claims it identified the additional recordings after obtaining access to Udio’s training data during discovery in the original lawsuit. Using audio fingerprinting technology, the label says it uncovered evidence that the AI company had copied thousands of copyrighted tracks into its models.
The complaint also builds on earlier admissions made by Udio during the ongoing litigation. In court filings submitted earlier this year, the company acknowledged that it had used audio obtained from YouTube to help train its AI models, while maintaining that its practices are protected under fair use. Sony argues that such use constitutes widespread copyright infringement rather than transformative innovation.
Sony is seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each infringed recording, as well as a court order preventing Udio from continuing to use its copyrighted works without authorisation.
