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AI music platform Suno scraped song data from YouTube, Deezer and Genius, hack reveals
A hack of AI music platform Suno has revealed that the company scraped song and lyric data from major streaming and reference sites, including YouTube, Deezer and Genius, to train its generative music technology. The breach, first reported by 404 Media after an unnamed hacker shared data with the outlet, also exposed Stripe payment details belonging to hundreds of thousands of Suno users, raising fresh privacy concerns for the platform's customers. The revelations add to mounting scrutiny of Suno, which is already the subject of multiple lawsuits from artists and record labels over alleged copyright infringement.
Leaked data showed millions of songs and lyrics from leading streaming services had been used to train Suno's models, alongside stock libraries such as Pond5, Jamendo, Freesound and the International Music Score Library Project, plus podcasts gathered via RSS feeds. Suno said the breach occurred in November 2025 but involved only "outdated source code" no longer in use, maintaining that its models are trained on "publicly available" files and metadata found online. The company, the largest AI music generator on the market, previously denied using copyrighted recordings without permission but has since shifted to a fair-use defence, which rights holders continue to dispute. By November last year Suno was reportedly generating a volume of music equivalent to Spotify's entire catalogue every month.
In short
- Hack exposes Suno's use of scraped YouTube, Deezer and Genius data
- Stripe payment details of hundreds of thousands of users also leaked
- Suno faces ongoing copyright lawsuits and now disputes over its fair-use defence
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Suno's advocates argue that training AI models on publicly available data constitutes fair use, as the technology is transformative and produces novel creative works rather than reproducing the originals. They contend that metadata and song information published online are intended to be accessible, and that developing generative music technology represents legitimate innovation comparable to how search engines index public content, ultimately benefiting society through technological progress.
The case against
Rights holders and artists argue that fair use does not shield commercial-scale training of generative AI on copyrighted works without permission or compensation. They contend that creators deserve agency and payment when their works are systematically scraped to fuel commercial products that directly compete with human musicians, and that the volume of content involved—equivalent to Spotify's entire monthly catalogue—demonstrates the profound economic harm to creators and copyright holders rather than incidental use.
Explained simply
Suno is an artificial intelligence platform that generates original music based on text descriptions from users. The platform has become one of the largest AI music generators, capable of producing music at enormous scale and speed.
AI music generation systems like Suno learn from existing music to understand how to create new compositions. To train these systems, companies typically use large datasets of songs and lyrics sourced from online sources such as streaming services and music reference websites.
There is significant dispute over whether AI companies should be permitted to use copyrighted music for training without permission or compensation. Artists and record labels have filed multiple lawsuits against Suno, alleging copyright infringement. The company argues that its use of available material falls within fair use protections, though rights holders strongly dispute this claim.
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