Suno is seeking access to streaming records held by the Mechanical Licensing Collective as it challenges Universal Music Group and Sony Music’s claims about the impact of AI-generated music. In an October 15 motion filed in Tennessee federal court, the company asked a judge to enforce a subpoena connected to the labels’ copyright lawsuit in Massachusetts. That underlying case concerns alleged unauthorized copying of sound recordings to train Suno’s music-generation technology. The labels also contend that competing AI-generated music threatens their catalogs. Suno argues that streaming records could help test claims about lost listening share and royalties; its disclosure request does not establish whether those losses occurred or whether its training practices were lawful.
The MLC enters the dispute because of the information it receives, rather than because it licenses record labels’ masters. It administers U.S. digital mechanical royalties for underlying compositions, receiving monthly usage reports from services and matching reported recordings to registered songs so the appropriate publishing rightsholders can be paid. Federal reporting rules require play-count and recording information, including certain label and ownership metadata where available. Those records could support comparisons of listening patterns, although changes in market share alone would not establish what caused them. Market harm is one of four statutory fair-use factors, and the broader copyright dispute also concerns the nature and purpose of the copying. The immediate question before the Tennessee court is narrower: whether the MLC must provide the requested evidence.
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