Posted by 
The use of generative AI in music has been a hot topic for a while now, and it’s been kicking into a higher gear lately with viral successes like “BBL Drizzy,” which couldn’t exist without Udio. Now, the Recording Industry Association Of America is suing that company.
During this spring’s Drake/Kendrick Lamar feud, Metro Boomin shared his “BBL Drizzy” instrumental, offering a free beat to the rapper who used the track the best. The online comedian King Willonius used the AI platform Udio to create the original “BBL Drizzy” R&B track earlier this year, and then Metro Boomin sampled it on his own “BBL Drizzy” beat. The “BBL Drizzy” instrumental and its various remixes became viral sensations, and Drake himself rapped over a “BBL Drizzy” sample on Sexyy Red’s “U My Everything.”
As Verge reports, the RIAA — the music-industry group that represents all three big major-label groups, among others — has filed a federal lawsuit against Udio and fellow AI-music firm Suno. The RIAA claims that Udio and Suno are violating copyright “en masse” by using existing music to inform their algorithms without the consent of the musicians, songwriters, or labels. They’re seeking damages of $150,000 per work, along with other fees.
The lawsuit says, “If Suno had taken efforts to avoid copying Plaintiffs’ sound recordings and ingesting them into its AI model, Suno’s service would not be able to reproduce the convincing imitations of such a vast range of human musical expression at the quality that Suno touts.”