AI song generator startups Suno and Udio angered the music industry. Now they’re hoping to join it

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Suno CEO Mikey Shulman pulls up a chair to the recording studio desk where a research scientist at his artificial intelligence company is creating a new song.

The flute line sounds promising.

The percussion needs work.

Neither of them is playing an instrument. They type some descriptive words – Afrobeat, flute, drums, 90 beats per minute – and out comes an infectious rhythm that livens up the 19th century office building where Suno is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They toggle some editing tools to refine the new track.

Much like early experiences with ChatGPT or AI text-to-image generators, trying to make an AI-generated song on platforms like Suno or its rival, Udio, can seem a little like magic. It takes no musical skills, practice or emotional wellspring to conjure up a new tune inspired by almost any of the world’s musical traditions.

But the process of training AI on beloved musicians of the past and present to produce synthetic approximations of their work has angered the music industry and brought much of its legal power against the two startups.

Now, after their users have flooded the internet with millions of AI-generated songs, some of which have found themse...