Sony Music has filed a new lawsuit against AI music generator Udio, alleging the company used more than 30,000 copyrighted songs from its catalog without permission to train its artificial intelligence models.
According to the complaint, Sony identified 30,117 recordings during a forensic review of Udio’s training data and source code obtained through discovery in an earlier copyright lawsuit.
The company claims those tracks represent only a small portion of the material it believes was copied, alleging that hundreds of thousands of Sony-owned recordings may have been used for AI training.
The recordings allegedly include music from artists such as Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Harry Styles, Mariah Carey, Elvis Presley, and many others.
Sony also accuses Udio of using the tool YT-DLP to "stream rip" music from YouTube, claiming it bypassed the platform’s protections to create permanent copies for AI training.
The lawsuit further argues that Udio’s recent licensing agreements with companies including Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group undermine its claim that using copyrighted music for AI training qualifies as fair use.
Sony is seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringed recording, along with a court order preventing Udio from further copyright infringement. Udio has previously acknowledged its AI was trained on a vast collection of recordings, including works likely owned by the plaintiffs, but continues to argue that its training practices are protected under fair use.