Subscribers Livid After Downloads Disabled

Photo Credit: Elena Theodoridou

Udio subscribers express their frustration on social media after the platform disables downloads following the company’s landmark deal with UMG.

While the music industry at large is eager to see what comes next now that Universal Music Group has signed a landmark deal with AI company Udio, not everyone is thrilled with the swift transition. On Reddit and other social media platforms, Udio subscribers are discussing possible legal action after the company disabled all downloads on its platform immediately following the announcement of the UMG deal.

No sooner had UMG reached a licensing agreement with Udio than backlash erupted from users livid that the AI platform had already disabled downloads. The deal, announced on Wednesday, also ends UMG’s involvement in copyright litigation against Udio while laying the groundwork for a new version of the Udio platform trained on licensed music.

But that change means Udio will now become a “walled garden,” in which users can only stream their AI-based creations on the platform without the ability to export and distribute these works elsewhere.

Udio offers both monthly and annual subscription plans for its AI-based music generation platform, which cost either $10 a month/$96 annually for a Standard plan, or $30 a month/$288 annually for a Pro plan.

Even though the new version of Udio won’t launch until next year, the company wasted no time disabling downloads on the current version—no doubt to comply with UMG’s demands as part of the agreement. That the change came with little notification to Udio’s users has made them particularly irate, with some even considering taking legal action against the company.

“This feels like an absolute betrayal,” wrote one user on Reddit. “I’ve spent hundreds of $$$ and countless hours building tracks with this tool,” said another. “No one warned us that one day, we wouldn’t even be able to access our own music. You can’t just pull the plug and call that a ‘transition.’”

“I’m absolutely livid,” wrote another user, who said they paid for an annual subscription right before Udio announced the UMG deal and removed the ability to download creations. “The sole reason I paid for the service was to produce music to soundtrack short films for the students in my high school media class. Now no downloads?”

“What you have committed is fraud. Just so you understand,” wrote one user somewhat ominously in a post directed at Udio. “You may not feel any legal ramifications immediately, but not everyone who used your platform is without resources.”

Whether such enraged users will actually resort to litigation—and whether those will actually go anywhere—remains to be seen. It’s worth pointing out that Udio’s terms of service states that users can opt out of mandatory arbitration (which disallows public litigation and forces private individual arbitration for user-related legal issues) but they must send notice of this intent within 30 days of registering for the service.