Suno Asks Court to Pause Universal and Sony's Second AI Training Lawsuit

By Dafa Attas

Photo: ANTONI SHKRABA production / Pexels

AI music company Suno has asked a federal court in Massachusetts to put on hold the second copyright lawsuit brought against it by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. According to Law360, the motion was filed on 30 October 2026 (US time). Suno argues that the case should wait for key rulings in the labels' first lawsuit, which is still pending in the same court before Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV.

Two cases, one dispute

The labels first sued Suno in June 2024, alleging that it copied huge numbers of copyrighted sound recordings to train its music generator. That "original action" is still in progress.

The second suit, filed on 18 September 2026, targets Suno's new v6 model suite, launched on 9 September with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe as partners. Suno says v6 was trained on licensed content, user interactions and its team's accumulated learning. The labels claim that v6 was trained on outputs and preference data from earlier models that were themselves built on infringing copies. Their complaint calls this laundering: "Training a 'new' model on the outputs of an infringing model does not eliminate the infringement; it launders it." The suit asserts 60,202 recordings. It was filed after Judge Saylor refused, in August, to add these works to the first case, so as not to delay a case he wants decided on fair use.

What Suno admitted in its answer

On 20 October Suno filed a 44-page answer rather than a motion to dismiss. As reported by Music Business Worldwide, Suno admitted that it "has not deleted all of the sound recordings it has used to train its AI models". It said this was consistent with the labels' own earlier request that it preserve its training data sets.

Suno also admitted that, since January 2026, users have been able to include artist names in prompts, which are converted into style descriptions. Earlier, it had told the court that its tool was designed not to process requests framed by an artist's name. Suno denies that its models are designed to reproduce existing recordings and says any copying is fair use.

Why a stay matters

If the court grants the stay, the second case would effectively wait until the first case produces rulings on core questions such as fair use for AI training. That could save both sides from running two overlapping sets of discovery and arguments. The labels are likely to oppose the stay, arguing that v6 is a new and ongoing product and that delay would cause further harm.

The motion is also part of a broader pattern. Suno is also facing a separate proposed class action, filed on 31 August by musicians including Jason Isbell and David Lowery. That case is based on publicity rights rather than copyright and focuses on artist-name prompts.

What to watch

The court has not yet ruled on the motion. Any decision will shape how fast the "training on outputs" theory, which could affect many AI developers, is tested in court.

Sources

• Law360: AI Music Startup Wants Labels' Second IP Suit Paused
• Music Business Worldwide: Suno admits it has not deleted all the recordings used to train its AI (22 Oct 2026)
• Justia Dockets: UMG Recordings v. Suno, No. 1:26-cv-14275 (D. Mass.)
• Music Business Worldwide: Universal and Sony sue Suno for a second time (Sept 2026)
• Music Business Worldwide: Jason Isbell and David Lowery are suing Suno in a class action suit