Suno – one of the two music-generating AI companies sued by the major record companies for using copyrighted music without permission to train their models – has unveiled a new version of its AI music tool, which it says “takes music creation to the next level.”
The company also recently announced that it has named Jack Brody, the former Head of Product at Snap, as its Chief Product Officer.
“We’ve refined what worked and added more where it mattered most. The result is v4 — a major update that takes music creation to the next level. v4 delivers cleaner audio, sharper lyrics, and more dynamic song structures,” Suno wrote on its blog.
Suno V4 comes with some new features, including “Lyrics by ReMi,” which is “designed to help you write more creative lyrics and elevate your songwriting.”
Another new feature is “Personas,” which allows users to capture the “vocals, style and vibe” of a track they created, in order to carry it forward to future tracks, thus creating a consistent sound.
Suno V4 also enables users to “remaster” the tracks they created with earlier versions of Suno, upgrading those tracks with V4’s higher-quality sound.
From the point of view of AI-generated music fans, Suno V4’s greatest achievement may be in artificially generating voices. In recent days, audio clips purportedly generated by V4 have appeared on social media featuring vocals that are indistinguishable from human voices.
According to Christopher Wieduwilt, a Munich-based entrepreneur who runs The AI Musicpreneur, Suno V4 “will shake the music industry to its core.”
Some in the music industry would argue Suno had already done that prior to V4’s release. The company says it has grown its user base to 25 million people, up from 10 million this past spring when Suno announced it had raised USD $125 million from investors, giving the company a valuation of $500 million.
Suno offers a free version that enables the creation of up to 10 new tracks per day that are owned by Suno and can be used for non-commercial purposes. The Pro plan, at $10 per month, allows up to 500 songs per month and grants the user ownership. The Premier plan, at $30 per month, allows up to 2,500 songs per month and comes with user ownership. The Pro and Premier plans offer access to V4.
It’s on the issue of rights that the music industry has a bone to pick with Suno. In June, record companies owned by the three music majors – Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group – sued Suno, alongside another Ai music generator, Udio, alleging that the two companies had trained their AI models on copyrighted music without authorization, and that Suno and Udio’s AI tools have created music that essentially copied existing copyrighted music.
In their responses to the lawsuits, Suno and Udio more or less admitted that their AI models may have ingested copyrighted music during training – but they argued that such use of copyrighted materials is “fair use” under US copyright law. That defense – also invoked by some other AI companies that are being sued for copyright infringement – has yet to be tested by the courts.
On Wednesday (November 13), Suno said it had brought Jack Brody on board as its Chief Product Officer. Brody, the former Head of Product at Snapchat maker Snap Inc., will “oversee product and design, as we work to shape the future of music and make it accessible to an increasingly broad audience,” Suno wrote on its blog.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join Suno on this journey to reimagine how the world creates and experiences music.”
Jack Brody, Suno
“I couldn’t be more excited to join Suno on this journey to reimagine how the world creates and experiences music. The team’s creativity and unwavering dedication is inspiring, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to help bring this vision to life,” Brody said.
Brody’s hiring comes less than a month after Suno announced that Grammy-winning artist and producer Timbaland had joined the company as a strategic advisor. Timbaland teamed up with Suno after what the company said was “months” of him “being a top user of the platform.”
In July, Suno released a mobile app for Apple devices.
EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story cited a web page with information on Suno V4. However, Suno says it has no connection to that web page. As MBW can’t confirm the page’s ownership, we have removed the information cited from that page. We have also clarified details on Suno’s membership plans.Music Business Worldwide
