Jason Isbell leads class-action lawsuit against AI music platform Suno

Musicians led by Jason Isbell have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against AI music platform Suno in a Massachusetts federal court. The legal action alleges that Suno misappropriates and commercially exploits the identities, voices, and musical personas of artists without their consent.

Unlike previous copyright-focused litigation against AI companies, this suit centers on the rights of publicity and biometric privacy. The plaintiffs—including David Lowery, Guy Forsyth, and Eduardo Calle—argue that Suno’s technology uses an artist’s name as a ‘retrieval key’ to generate music, descriptions, and imagery that mimic their specific styles and vocal characteristics. The complaint further alleges that Suno has captured and stored artists’ ‘voiceprints,’ including pitch and timbre, during model training.

While Suno maintains that its platform is designed for original creation and employs filters to block specific artist names, the lawsuit claims these safeguards are easily bypassed, such as by inserting spaces between letters in a name. Suno has stated that its claims are without merit and that it intends to defend against the allegations.