The Copyright Office requires applicants to disclose and disclaim more-than-de-minimis AI-generated material. Human-created portions of AI-assisted works may remain eligible for protection, but material generated without sufficient human authorship cannot be registered.

An unauthorized track using synthetic imitations of Drake and The Weeknd goes viral before being removed from major platforms, forcing labels, platforms and lawmakers to confront questions involving identity, copyright and consent.

YouTube and Google DeepMind introduce Dream Track, allowing selected creators to generate short-form music using the voices and styles of participating artists—an early example of consent-based AI music involving established performers.

Tennessee enacts first-of-its-kind music-focused legislation expanding state name, image and likeness protections to address certain unauthorized AI uses of an individual’s voice.

Suno launches V3 on March 21 and Udio publicly launches in April, giving consumers tools that generate complete songs—including lyrics, vocals, instrumentation and arrangements—from text prompts.

Record-label plaintiffs affiliated with UMG, Sony Music and Warner Music file separate federal lawsuits alleging that copyrighted sound recordings were copied without authorization to train the companies’ generative models.

UMG and SoundLabs announce an agreement allowing participating artists to create high-fidelity vocal models trained on their own voice data, with artists retaining control over ownership, access and approvals.

Part 1 of the Copyright Office’s AI report recommends a new federal law protecting individuals against realistic unauthorized digital reproductions of their voices and appearances.

The Office concludes that existing copyright principles can address AI-assisted works. AI may function as a creative tool, but prompts alone generally do not, with current technology, demonstrate sufficient human control over expressive output.

Part 3 of the Office’s AI report examines training-data collection, fair use, licensing markets and potential liability. Its analysis does not declare all generative-AI training categorically lawful or unlawful and is not binding law.

Deezer becomes the first major streaming service to explicitly tag fully AI-generated music, exclude detected synthetic tracks from editorial and algorithmic recommendations, and strengthen its response to artificial streaming.

The Velvet Sundown attracts more than one million monthly Spotify listeners before being disclosed as a human-directed synthetic project. Hallwood signs a reported multimillion-dollar deal involving Telisha “Nikki” Jones and Xania Monet, while AI-associated acts Xania Monet and Breaking Rust reach Billboard charts.

Spotify strengthens its impersonation policy and reporting processes, announces a music-spam filter and supports DDEX disclosures describing how AI was used in a release. The measures target deceptive and manipulative activity rather than banning all AI-assisted music.

UMG and Udio settle their litigation and announce a planned subscription service using models trained on authorized and licensed music, together with new revenue opportunities for participating rightsholders.

WMG settles with Udio on November 19 and Suno on November 25, establishing commercial frameworks addressing compensation, attribution and participating artists’ control over identity-related uses.

Klay announces AI-music licensing agreements involving UMG, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and their publishing operations, marking a significant multi-rightsholder effort to build a commercially licensed generative-music model.

Deezer reports nearly 75,000 fully AI-generated uploads per day—about 44% of daily deliveries. These tracks generate 1–3% of streams; Deezer identifies approximately 85% of those streams as fraudulent and excludes the fraudulent streams from royalty payments.

Spotify and UMG announce recorded-music and publishing agreements for a planned paid Premium add-on allowing users to create covers and remixes involving participating artists and songwriters.

The American Federation of Musicians sues UMG and WMG, alleging that their Suno and Udio arrangements permit AI use of union musicians’ performances without required permission or compensation under collective-bargaining agreements. The labels dispute the claims.

After a court declines to add new works to the original 2024 action, Sony files a separate New York lawsuit alleging infringement of 30,117 sound recordings. Applying the maximum willful-infringement rate produces a theoretical statutory ceiling of approximately $4.5 billion, not a guaranteed award.

The Munich Regional Court I rules that Suno lacked authorization to process and use compositions represented by GEMA and orders revenue disclosures. The decision is a major European music-specific AI ruling and may be appealed.

Jason Isbell, David Lowery, Guy Forsyth and Eduardo Calle file a proposed class action alleging unauthorized exploitation of musicians’ identities. The complaint asserts state publicity and identity claims plus an Illinois biometric-privacy claim, but no copyright causes of action.

Suno launches its V6 model suite in partnership with WMG and BMG, enabling creation involving licensed works from participating artists while disputes concerning the training of earlier models remain unresolved.

UMG and ElevenLabs announce plans to develop a licensed fan co-creation platform and additional AI audio products for participating artists and songwriters.

UMG alleges that DistroKid distributed unauthorized and altered versions of its recordings as well as mass-uploaded AI-generated spam. DistroKid disputes the allegations.

UMG and Sony file a second Massachusetts lawsuit targeting 60,202 recordings not included among the 560 works in the original action. The complaint alleges that Suno’s V6 preserved capabilities derived from earlier allegedly infringing models; the cited $9 billion-plus figure is a theoretical maximum statutory ceiling.