Jason Isbell and other musicians are suing AI music platform Suno

A group of musicians led by 400 Unit frontman Jason Isbell are suing the AI music platform Suno, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Boston, alongside artists Guy Forsyth, Eduardo Calle, and Camper Van Beethoven’s David Lowery, the musician alleges that Suno has generated music based on their names without permission.

“Jason Isbell’s musical identity does not cease to be his property merely because sophisticated technology is involved,” the lawsuit states.

It also adds that the safeguards that Suno uses to blocks artists’ names from being used as prompts are easy to bypass, citing entering a name with spaces between each letter.

“[Suno] uses distillation of the identifying attributes of the human beings who made the songs and recordings: the qualities that make a listener say ‘that is Jason Isbell.”

Speaking to Pitchfork, the platform’s spokesperson said they “believe these claims are without merit and we intend to defend against them. Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone's name.”

Firms including Sony Music, Universal Music Group are currently suing Suno as well as the platform Udio for copyright infringement, alleging that the AI music startups are exploiting the recorded works of artists. Warner Records, who was originally part of the lawsuit, has since dropped out of the lawsuit to sign an official partnership with the company.