Danish CMO Koda sues AI music company Suno for stealing members’ repertoire - calls for global standards of consent, transparency and remuneration

The Danish rights organization Koda has filed a lawsuit against U.S.-based AI music service Suno. Koda claims that the genAI tech company has trained their AI model on Koda’s repertoire while concealing the scope and sources of the training data - failing to disclose what works were used and how.

No licensing pathway was offered, no remuneration paid, and Suno’s outputs can mimic protected music, putting them in direct competition with the very works exploited. Evidence includes famous Danish repertoire from Aqua, MØ and Christopher.  In all cases, Koda has concrete evidence that the copyright of each work has been infringed. The case is brought on behalf of all Koda members to protect creators, culture, and ensure a sustainable music economy. This marks the first time a Danish rights organization has filed a lawsuit against an AI service.

“We are excited about what responsible AI can do for music,” said Gorm Arildsen, CEO of Koda. “But innovation can’t be built on stolen goods. Suno has taken our members’ creative work and fed it into their machines without consent, transparency or remuneration. That is theft - and it threatens the future of music.”

Koda calls for a clear, industry-wide standard demanding consent, transparency and remuneration from tech companies using human created protected music for training or generating music - and urges the entire sector to rally behind it. Recent licensing progress between industry actors, prove that lawful agreements are in fact possible. Koda’s lawsuit against Suno asks the court - and the industry - to choose a future where AI grows the pie without hollowing out the roots.,

“We find it unacceptable that it requires legal action to make Suno and similar AI services pay for the music they use to build a service which they profit from. If the industry wants to foster the future of truly talented artists creating new music, we must protect them. These are the actors most vulnerable to being trampled by big tech. We at Koda refuse to let algorithms shape our cultural history.” says Gorm Arildsen.

In a new report published by Koda together with IFPI Denmark, it is estimated that AI-generated music like that produced by Suno will, within a few years, consume large parts of the economy that makes it possible to create new Danish music. If the current development in AI continues, Danish music faces a historic revenue loss of 28 percent by 2030.

Last year, Suno was valued at $500 million - over DKK 3 billion. Suno is currently raising additional investments and is projected to reach a valuation of $2 billion - nearly DKK 13 billion.

Koda urges policymakers, platforms, publishers, labels, CMOs and AI developers to align on practical frameworks so AI can thrive with creators - not at their expense.

To see specifics about the case, examples, Q&A, etc., please visit: LINK