Suno, the AI music generation startup, unveiled its v6 model family on Wednesday, marking a strategic shift to licensed training data as it continues to fight copyright litigation from major record labels. The new models, developed with music from Warner Music Group, BMG, and Believe, introduce advanced editing and remixing features while retiring the company’s earlier, legally contested versions.
The launch comes at a critical juncture for the Boston-based company, which has raised over $819 million in funding to date, according to PitchBook data. Suno settled with Warner Music Group last year and struck a deal with BMG in August, but still faces active lawsuits from Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and artists including Jason Isbell.
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What’s new in Suno v6
Suno is releasing three versions of its new model. The base Suno v6 model, available to paying subscribers, is designed for controlled, reliable outputs. Suno v6 wild, also for paying users, targets ideation and unexpected creative results. Suno v6 mini, a faster version, is free for all users.
The company says the new lineup provides greater flexibility in how users create and manipulate tracks. With v6, users can edit a specific part of a song using a prompt or a word in the lyrics, separate an instrument from an existing sample to build a new beat, and even use text, images, or video as references to generate tracks.
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Jack Brody, Suno’s chief product officer, framed the release as an opportunity to expand revenue for artists and rights holders. “I think the music ecosystem and our partners are always looking for ways to create more revenue opportunities for their rights holders and artists. So a big part of this release is creating additional revenue streams there,” Brody told TechCrunch.
Licensing deals and lingering legal battles
The company emphasized that Suno v6 was not trained using the data that powered its previous models — a direct response to accusations that it scraped copyrighted recordings without permission. The shift to licensed sources follows a series of legal and business developments:
- Warner Music Group settlement announced last year
- BMG licensing agreement completed in August
- New partnership with Believe, a major digital music distributor
Despite these agreements, Suno’s legal troubles are far from over. The company still faces lawsuits from Sony Music and Universal Music Group, which allege mass copyright infringement in training earlier models. A separate suit from artists like Jason Isbell makes similar claims. The model announcement also came just a day after Suno admitted to training its models using YouTube videos, a disclosure that could complicate its defense in ongoing cases.
New features, watermarking, and platform responsibility
Looking ahead, Suno plans to introduce a feature that lets users remix songs — but only if the respective artists opt in through a new program the company is setting up with music labels. This program would allow Suno to use artists’ songs for AI-generated features, with revenue sharing as a core component.
Last month, Suno said it would add watermarks to songs generated on its platform, a step aimed at addressing concerns about AI-generated content flooding streaming services. The company also recently introduced download limits based on account tier.
Brody acknowledged the broader challenges of AI-generated music, including streaming fraud and mass uploads to distributors. “We can help manage some of the broader ecosystem challenges like streaming fraud and kind of mass exportation and uploading to distributors that are low intent. At the end of the day, we think it is up to the distributors and the platforms to govern what content goes on there,” he said.
The launch of Suno v6 represents an attempt to move past the legal controversies that have defined the company’s rise. Whether the licensed approach will satisfy critics and courts remains an open question, but the new model family gives Suno a clearer path to legitimacy — and a potential template for how AI music companies can operate within the bounds of copyright law.
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