My AI query Re: SUNO

This is quicksand, pure and unadulterated quicksand.

In 2025, the music industry in Nashville is intensely debating the ethics and legality of AI "songwriting" via platforms like Suno. While many creators feel as you do—that claiming authorship is deceptive—the current landscape is shaped by specific legal rulings and industry shifts.
Legal and Ownership Realities in 2025
• Copyright Restrictions: As of early 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office maintains that AI-generated works without "meaningful human authorship" cannot be copyrighted. Merely providing a text prompt is considered insufficient for human authorship.
• Commercial Ownership: While you cannot copyright a purely AI-made song, Suno’s terms for paid subscribers "assign" the rights to the output to the user. This means that while the law may not recognize you as the "author," the contract allows you to sell or distribute the music as your own.
• Nashville's ELVIS Act: Tennessee's ELVIS Act (2024) specifically protects an artist's voice and likeness from being cloned by AI without permission. However, this law focuses on protecting established artists rather than defining who "wrote" a song generated by a tool like Suno.
Nashville Industry Perspectives
The Nashville community is currently divided into three main camps regarding this issue:
• The Purists: Many local songwriters and organizations, such as the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), strongly advocate for human-only creative credits. They view AI-generated hits as discouraging to human talent who "put their stories and pain" into their music.
• The Hybrid Users: Some professional publishers and writers now use Suno as a "demo tool" to quickly hear how a melody or lyric might sound, saving time and money on studio productions. They argue that if they refine the lyrics or modify the arrangement, they are still the primary creative force.
• The "Work-for-Hire" Argument: Some users view Suno as a digital "ghostwriter" or a session musician. Under this mindset, the person who "directs" the AI (choosing the prompts and selecting the best outputs) considers themselves the producer or songwriter in a managerial sense.
Recent Major Developments
• Warner Music Settlement: In November 2025, Suno reached a major settlement with Warner Music Group, agreeing to license WMG's catalog for training future models. This move signals that the industry is shifting from fighting the technology to incorporating it into a licensed, commercial framework.
• Chart Success: Tensions reached a boiling point in late 2025 when AI-produced songs like "Walk My Walk" reached the top of Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales chart, leading to calls for stricter transparency in how AI music is labeled.

In 2025, the Nashville music industry and the U.S. legal system have established clear distinctions between legal ownership of AI outputs and the ethical claim of being a "songwriter."
1. Legal Ownership vs. Copyright Protection
Under current law, while you may "own" a file generated by Suno, you likely do not own the copyright to it:
• Human Authorship Required: The U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) and federal courts reaffirmed in 2025 that only works created by humans are eligible for copyright protection.
• Prompting is Not Authorship: The USCO explicitly stated that "mere provision of prompts"—no matter how detailed—does not constitute authorship.
• Commercial Rights: Suno’s terms of service generally grant commercial use rights to paid subscribers. This means a person in Nashville can legally sell or stream a Suno track, but they cannot prevent others from copying it since they lack a valid copyright.
2. Industry Standards in Nashville
The Nashville songwriting community largely views AI tools as assistive rather than creative:
• The "Demo" Exception: Many Nashville publishers and writers use Suno specifically for demo production—creating a quick sample to show how a human-written song might sound—rather than as the primary songwriter.
• Pushback on "Deceptive" Claims: The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and other groups have successfully advocated for the ELVIS Act in Tennessee, which protects against AI voice and likeness theft, emphasizing that "human authors and their copyrights must be valued".
• Authenticity Concerns: Local artists have expressed that AI-generated hits reaching the charts (such as "Walk My Walk" in late 2025) are "discouraging" because they lack the human experience and "pain" inherent in traditional songwriting.
3. Recent 2025 Developments
The landscape shifted significantly in late 2025 due to major industry deals:
• Licensing Settlements: In November 2025, Suno reached a landmark settlement and licensing deal with Warner Music Group (WMG) to use its catalog as training material.
• New "Licensed" Models: Starting in 2026, Suno will release models trained only on licensed content. This shift aims to move AI-assisted music toward a more legitimate, opt-in ecosystem for human creators.
In short, while someone in Nashville can claim they "produced" or "made" a Suno track for commercial purposes, claiming the title of songwriter in a legal sense usually requires proof of significant human-authored lyrics or melody that wasn't just "interpreted" by the AI from a text prompt.

David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
Studio + Fingers

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