AI Music News

Sega brings Tupac into Stranger Than Heaven with estate permission and no AI

• Sega and RGG Studio revealed Tupac Shakur as the character Amaru in Stranger Than Heaven at Summer Game Fest 2026
• The portrayal was built with the permission and ongoing supervision of his estate, Amaru Entertainment, and without AI
• Snoop Dogg and his son Cordell Broadus presented the reveal and play characters, with the game out worldwide on January 15, 2027

Musicians' union sues Universal and Warner for cutting session players out of their Suno and Udio AI deals

• The American Federation of Musicians filed a breach-of-contract suit against Universal Music and Warner Music on June 5, 2026 in New York federal court
• The union says the labels kept Suno and Udio settlement and licensing money without paying the session musicians whose recordings were copied
• The claim rests on the "new use" clause in the AFM's Sound Recording Labor Agreement; the union seeks damages and a ruling that the labels breached it

France's Darcos bill: 227 rights groups press lawmakers to make AI firms prove they didn't train on copyrighted music

• A coalition of 227 CISAC member rights organizations urged France's National Assembly on June 8, 2026 to pass the Darcos bill
• The bill would reverse the burden of proof, forcing AI companies to prove they did not train on copyrighted works
• The French Senate passed it unanimously in April, but the lower house has not scheduled it for debate

Top 5 AI music news of the week (1st – 7th June 2026)

AI music news (Jun 1–7 2026) ✓ Free amp passes for real gear. ✓ AI scores tracks for brands. ✓ UK funding fell to £68.8M. → Read more!

CISAC's Paris Commitment asks policymakers to protect human creativity from AI

• CISAC adopted the Paris Commitment at its General Assembly in Paris on June 4, 2026.
• CISAC is the global network of authors' societies, representing more than 5 million creators.
• The declaration sets four principles covering protection, transparency, collective management, and government action.

H.R. 6028 could reshape who runs the US Copyright Office, and how AI music cases get judged

• H.R. 6028 would remove the US Copyright Office from the supervision of the Library of Congress.
• The Register of Copyrights would become a presidential nominee confirmed by the Senate for a 10-year term.
• The bill landed after the 2025 firing and court-ordered reinstatement of Register Shira Perlmutter.

Protect Working Musicians Act returns, letting indie artists collectively negotiate with AI and streamers

• A coalition of music groups backs reintroducing the Protect Working Musicians Act, championed by Rep. Deborah Ross.
• The bill would let independent artists and labels collectively negotiate with AI companies and streaming services.
• It creates an antitrust exemption so indie musicians can bargain as a group without legal risk.

ARIA boss Annabelle Herd rejects Scott Farquhar's call to weaken AI copyright law

• ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd rejected a call by Tech Council of Australia chair Scott Farquhar to loosen copyright law for AI training.
• Farquhar told the AFR AI Summit that training AI in Australia would mean cutting a deal with every recording artist in the world.
• Herd said four licensing deals, one with each major label and one with Merlin, would cover about 80% of the world's recordings.

Suno raises $400 million Series D at a $5.4 billion valuation

• Suno raised over $400 million in Series D funding at a $5.4 billion post-money valuation, announced June 3, 2026.
• Bond Capital led the round, joined by IVP, Forerunner, Union Square Ventures, Alkeon, and Quiet, with existing backers Matrix, Lightspeed, Menlo Ventures, and Schroders Capital.
• The valuation more than doubles the $2.45 billion Suno reported in November 2025, when it raised $250 million on roughly $200 million in revenue.

Udio asks a New York court to seal the number of audio files it trained on

• Udio filed a June 1, 2026 motion in New York federal court to seal one figure, the total number of audio files used to train its AI music model.
• Udio's lawyers call it the "Training Data Number" and argue rivals could use it to build competing products faster and more cheaply.
• The motion came days after Suno made the same request in its own Boston copyright case.

Anthropic files for an IPO at a $965B valuation while the music publishers' case rolls on

• Anthropic filed a confidential draft registration statement with the SEC for a proposed IPO, with share count and price still undecided.
• A recent raise pushed Anthropic's valuation to $965 billion, ahead of OpenAI's $852 billion.
• Anthropic said its run-rate revenue crossed $47 billion this month.

US Copyright Office leaders will headline the AIMP publishing summit on June 9

• The 2026 AIMP Global Music Publishing Summit hosts a fireside chat with the US Copyright Office on Tuesday, June 9 in New York City.
• Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter and General Counsel Emily L. Chapuis will speak, moderated by Songtradr's Art Levy.
• Chapuis helped lead the Office's multi-part report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence.