Major Labels Sue AI Firm Behind Metro Boomin’s ‘BBL Drizzy’ Diss
More AI lawsuits are coming down. Recently, Metro Bommin’s “BBL Drizzy” beat that was used in a Drake diss track has led to several lawsuits being filed against artificial intelligence (AI) companies. CNN reported that a group of major record labels is suing two AI startups, alleging they wrongfully used popular artists’ work to train their systems to produce copyrighted music without their consent.
More about the “BBL Drizzy” beat lawsuit
According to multiple reports, AI firms Suno and Udio have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and major record labels Sony Music, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. They filed two copyright infringement cases against AI companies Suno and Uncharted Labs, the developer behind Udio, for training their AI models with the labels’ unlicensed sound recordings.
Udio is the company behind “BBL Drizzy,” the AI-generated song that went viral last month during the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef. They created “BBL Drizzy,” which was then sampled by Metro for his instrumental diss track, with the original song being artificially created, including the vocals. It’s worth noting that Metro Boomin’ is not named as a defendant in the lawsuits, and it is believed that he was not aware the sample was AI-generated when he used it.
Udio was founded last year by former Google DeepMind researchers to make it “easy for anyone to create emotionally resonant music in an instant,” according to the company. In April, it raised $10 million in funding.
How does generative AI automate the music-making process?
A TIME report said Suno and Udio are among a new crop of startups using generative AI to automate the music-making process. They also said that people can type in a short written prompt, like “an electro-pop song about strawberries,” and software from either company will spit out human-sounding music in seconds.
“In order to build their AI systems, the companies must first train their software on enormous datasets, which can be made up of many millions of individual pieces of information,’ the outlet said.
According to XXL Mag, the lawsuit is seeking an “injunction against” Suno and Udio to stop them from using existing copyrighted music to train their programs, as well as damages from infractions that have already been committed.
The lawsuit also contains evidence that Suno and Udio used copyrighted recordings from several artists across the three record labels. They claim they have evidence of the AI programs copying the producer tags of Cash Money AP and Jason Derulo, as well as vocals from Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey.
Suno released a statement in response to the lawsuit. “Suno’s mission is to make it possible for everyone to make music. Our technology is transformative; it is designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorize and regurgitate pre-existing content. That is why we don’t allow user prompts that reference specific artists,” they stated.
