Warner Music Group Unveils ‘Landmark’ Suno Licensing Deal

Warner Music Group head Robert Kyncl, whose company’s finalized a ‘groundbreaking’ deal with Suno. Photo Credit: Robert Kyncl / LinkedIn

After 17 months of litigation – and following AI licensing deals with Udio, Stability, and more – Warner Music Group (WMG) has finalized a “groundbreaking partnership” with Suno.

The major label and the music generator disclosed their blockbuster pact this afternoon, just five days after WMG head Robert Kyncl laid out his AI strategy. Evidently, this breakdown’s timing (and emphasis on favorable financial terms as well as artist opt-ins) wasn’t a coincidence.

Now, Warner Music and Suno intend to “open new frontiers in music creation, interaction, and discovery” – while simultaneously unlocking fresh revenue streams for creatives. Like with the aforementioned Udio tie-up, WMG opted against diving into the partnership’s precise financials or components.

But forthcoming earnings reports should enable concrete takeaways about the former. (Notably, given that Warner Music is the first major to license Suno, the market doesn’t seem thrilled; WMG shares slipped by over 2% during trading today.)

And on the latter front, the union, as is also the case with the Udio deals, is poised to usher in dramatic operational pivots at Suno.

2026 will bring “several changes to the platform,” the involved parties confirmed, chief among them the rollout of “more advanced and licensed models.”

“When the new models launch in 2026,” Warner Music elaborated, “the current models will be deprecated. Moving forward, downloading audio will require a paid account.”

Additionally, Suno will embrace “download restrictions in certain scenarios” – including making free-tier outputs playable and shareable but not downloadable. Though paid users aren’t exactly happy about the change, they’ll soon face “limited monthly download caps with the ability to pay for more downloads.”

(“[M]ore details to be shared soon,” Suno wrote of the download-cap particulars in its own release.)

Interestingly, Suno, having raised a cool $250 million earlier in November, has purchased Songkick from Warner Music as well.

The way the companies see things, bringing the concert-discovery platform under the same roof as the AI giant “will create new potential to deepen the artist-fan connection.”

(Back to Suno’s distinct release: “We will be introducing content from WMG artists who opt in for the use of their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions to be used in new AI-generated music. These will be new creation experiences from artists who do opt in, which will open up new revenue streams for them…  and allow you to interact with them in new ways.”)

As for the majors’ Suno suit, it probably goes without saying that today’s pact will bring the legal battle to an end – at least for Warner Music. At the time of writing, a related filing hadn’t yet made its way into the docket.

But with this agreement, we should know sooner rather than later whether Universal Music and Sony Music are, at a minimum, on board with the broader Warner Music-forged framework. Separately, the WMG-Suno deal and settlement are also important when it comes to the ongoing artist-led suits against the AI developer.

In a statement, Warner Music head Robert Kyncl applauded the “landmark pact” as “a victory for the creative community that benefits everyone.”

“With Suno rapidly scaling, both in users and monetization,” Kyncl continued, “we’ve seized this opportunity to shape models that expand revenue and deliver new fan experiences.

“AI becomes pro-artist when it adheres to our principles: committing to licensed models, reflecting the value of music on and off platform, and providing artists and songwriters with an opt-in for the use of their name, image, likeness, voice and compositions in new AI songs,” he concluded.