Suno<\/a>, arguing that the companies violated copyright law by training their models on copyrighted recordings without permission (the companies argued that this constituted fair use). Now Universal and Udio are targeting 2026 for the launch of their joint platform, which will be a \u201cwalled garden\u201d where no AI creations can be downloaded or posted outside of the site. The idea, according to UMG executive vice president and chief digital officer Michael Nash, is to avoid \u201cdirect cannibalization,\u201d preventing the AI songs from competing with artists\u2019 actual tracks on streaming, and making sure the platform generates entirely new revenue.<\/p>\n\n\tUsers will only be able to work with songs whose creators have opted in, which will limit the available catalog, perhaps vastly so. But Universal is confident that there is some interest from artists. \u201cFrom our preliminary conversations as we extend the outreach,\u201d says Nash, \u201cthere are artists that are not gonna want to be the first wave of product introduction. And there are artists that are definitely going to want to be part of the first wave.\u201d Their pitch to artists is, he adds, \u201cYou\u2019ll have enormous control over the parameters around that interaction, and then you will have significant economic participation. As opposed to the current world in which there\u2019s no control and there\u2019s very little economic participation, it\u2019s a pretty attractive proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tIn addition to royalties, artists who opt in will also receive what Sanchez argues could be valuable data. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m a country singer, but people are trying to use me to make hip hop,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s amazing. Maybe I wanna lean into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Music Artists Coalition, a non-profit representing the interests of recording artists founded by legendary artist manager and exec Irving Azoff, said in a press release that certain questions still need to be answered about the deal, including whether artists will get a portion of any settlement money paid by Udio, the details of the revenue splits, and how disagreements over permissions will be handled in cases of songs with multiple creators. \u201cArtists must have creative control, fair compensation, and clarity about deals being done,\u201d Azoff said. <\/p>\n
\n\tThere are also questions around the underlying training data needed to make the new Udio model work \u2014 Nash says Universal is still determining what portion of their catalog they\u2019ll make available for training. \u201cThe approach that we\u2019re taking,\u201d Nash says, \u201cis really around where we have rights and the ability to convey our content for the development of underlying capability of the models.\u201d (A Universal source emphasized that the company has no intention of making its entire catalog available for the training, adding that \u201cthere is a very rigorous process of clearance underway.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tNash argues that for music fans, using AI to work with existing, well-known songs is a much more attractive proposition than simply creating tracks from scratch. Nash cites research from the streaming service Deezer showing that while 30 percent of tracks uploaded to it are AI-generated \u2014 about 30,000 tracks per day \u2014 that content accounts for less than half of one percent of actual listening. Spotify recently confirmed similar figures, he says. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s very little organic demand for AI slop,\u201d Nash says. \u201cIn fact, people are frustrated by the fact that their social media feeds are being murdered by AI slop right now.\u201d The real opportunity, he argues, is in tools that deepen connections between artists and fans. He points to research from <\/strong>the content-tracking platform Pex showing that 30 to 40 percent of music content on social media has already been modified by users \u2014 sped up, slowed down, mashed up or remixed. \u201cWhat that tells you is there\u2019s tremendous consumer interest in touching the content and directly interacting with the content,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tSuno, which is still in litigation with Universal and the other labels, has a vastly larger footprint than Udio \u2014 SimilarWeb shows Suno attracted around 43.8 million visitors in September, while Udio\u2019s had just 2.3 million. Nash argues that Udio has prioritized negotiations with Universal in recent months over growing the service, and believes their technology is as strong as Suno\u2019s. The latter service, he insists, is investing in \u201can unsustainable status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s unclear precisely what the new Udio\/Universal service will look like, and Sanchez says he\u2019s uncertain if it will even use the Udio brandname. Udio\u2019s existing service will carry on while the new one takes shape, but it has already turned off the ability to download tracks. \u201cWe think that Udio has made the right bets,\u201d says Nash, \u201cand we think that they\u2019re going to put a great product into the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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