UMG settles with Udio, plans licensed joint AI music platform

Universal Music Group settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio, one of two AI music generators UMG had joined the other major labels in suing in mid-2024 over allegations of mass, unlicensed copying of sound recordings to train its models. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the settlement paired a payment to UMG with new licences covering both recorded music and publishing rights, and the two companies said they would jointly build a new “music creation, consumption and streaming” platform for 2026, trained only on authorised and licensed music, with artists able to set permissions for how their names, likenesses, voices and compositions could be used.

In the interim, Udio’s existing product remains available but constrained: users can no longer download tracks they generate, and the service now operates behind fingerprinting and filtering measures inside what the companies described as a “walled garden,” pending the 2026 platform’s launch. Sony Music’s separate copyright claims against Udio were not addressed by the settlement and remained active.

The deal followed a pattern set a month later when Warner Music separately settled its own suit against Suno on similar terms — a licensing deal plus a commitment to retire the unlicensed model in favour of one trained on authorised catalogues — suggesting the major labels had converged on licensing rather than prolonged litigation as their preferred route to resolving disputes with AI music generators, even as some claims against the same companies continued elsewhere.