Suno, the AI music-generation company, is pursuing two seemingly contradictory legal strategies at once: fighting Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music in court over claims it illegally trained its model on unlicensed music, while simultaneously striking licensing deals with other major players, notably Warner Music Group (WMG) and BMG. Legal experts say this creates a potential "conundrum" for Suno, since the licences could undermine its own fair-use defence by showing that a paid market for AI training data already exists, a factor courts weigh heavily when assessing copyright claims.

Two years into litigation, WMG left the majors' lawsuit in November after settling with Suno on terms requiring it to build a new model using licensed music, and BMG signed a similar deal this month. UMG and Sony's lawyers have argued in court filings that the WMG agreement is "direct evidence" that a licensing market exists and that Suno's models rely on copyrighted recordings, while Suno counters that lost licensing opportunities do not constitute legal harm, citing a precedent from a similar Meta AI case. The outcome remains unsettled: a US judge has yet to rule on whether fair use applies to Suno's practices, though a German court recently found against it, and Suno, last valued at $5.4 billion, continues to expand its licensing deals even as it defends its no-licence stance in court.