Suno Plans New Tools to Make AI-Generated Music More Transparent. Is It Enough?

The AI song-generation platform Suno plans to make it easier to tell if a tune you hear was made by its tools. Watermarks and fingerprinting were two items the company suggested in a blog post on Thursday that it intends to implement in a bid to “build the world’s best platform for music creation while contributing to a healthy and growing music ecosystem.” The watermarking and fingerprinting effort remains vague, and Suno said it also plans to introduce a new downloads policy that limits mass distribution on streaming platforms. Suno is one of many AI music generators that let you create and download songs using AI models. However, Suno’s source code was hacked in July, and the findings raise eyebrows. The code showed that Suno’s AI was trained by scraping music and lyrics from platforms such as YouTube Music and Genius, according to 404 Media. Suno also recently faced legal troubles from music groups, including Sony and Universal, for mass copyright infringement in 2024. Most streaming platforms don’t yet ban AI-generated music outright. But platforms like Spotify are already implementing policies to crack down on deepfakes, require disclosures about AI-generated music and allow artists to file complaints. Apple Music has Transparency Tags to spot and identify AI-generated music. And Deezer doesn’t include AI-generated music in recommendations, and doesn’t pay royalties for AI tracks. But are Suno’s efforts enough for artists, streaming platforms and recording companies? Representatives for Suno, Deezer and Apple Music did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the blog post, Suno outlined a slew of changes to protect artists and their work. It says names aren’t used in training metadata in order to help people create original songs that aren’t inspired by any other artists. Suno also says it doesn’t allow prompts that specify artists or copyrighted songs. Instead, it focuses on musical characteristics. This list goes on, like Suno cracking down on any other potential attempts to copy artists by using third-party technology to screen audio files and lyrics for unauthorized use. Updates to its community guidelines clarify which activities are (and aren’t) prohibited on Suno. And its Trust & Safety team will continue to review and investigate reports of violations and take action. However, some parts remain vague. The blog post also mentioned new transparency tools to identify a Suno-generated song on other platforms. Then there’s new audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology to flag fraud and misuse, and the company plans to introduce a new downloads policy that limits mass distribution on streaming platforms. Suno has not yet shared any details on the downloads policy, or the watermarking and fingerprinting technology.