Suno says artists and platforms should decide on AI labels, not the RIAA suing it

Suno responded to the music industry’s new AI labelling proposal on July 10, 2026, and its answer came down to one line: the labels should not be the record industry’s call. “We believe that ultimately it should be up to artists and platforms to decide how to treat these complex issues,” the company said in a statement reported by Music Business Worldwide. Suno is currently being sued by Sony Music and Universal Music Group in a case coordinated by the RIAA, one of the eight bodies behind the plan.

What the labelling proposal actually asks for

The RIAA and IFPI proposed the system on July 10, backed by A2IM, WIN, IMPALA, the Recording Academy, SAG-AFTRA and the Human Artistry Campaign. A track gets an AI-Generated tag when generative AI produced all or most of its creative elements, such as an AI lead vocal, an AI key instrumental, or a fully prompt-generated song. It gets an AI-Assisted tag when humans did the substantial work and performed the lead vocal and primary instruments, with AI filling in some expressive parts.

Two details decide how much this matters. The labels are voluntary. And they cover sound recordings only, so AI used in lyrics, composition, music videos or cover art carries no tag at all.

Suno points the decision back at artists and platforms

Suno did not reject transparency. It said the opposite, calling transparency important and pointing to its work on watermarking and audio fingerprinting, tools it says let artists disclose AI use themselves. The company also called this “a nuanced conversation that will require thoughtful solutions.”

The pushback sits in who holds the pen.

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We believe that ultimately it should be up to artists and platforms to decide how to treat these complex issues.

Read that against the litigation and the position gets sharper. Sony and Universal are suing Suno for training on their recordings without permission, in an action the RIAA coordinates. Warner settled in November 2025 and took a licence. Suno closed a funding round of more than $400 million in June at a $5.4 billion valuation, which you can read about in our coverage of the Series D round. A company in that position was never going to hand the classification of its own output to the trade body suing it.

DiMA answers a labelling plan by asking for metadata

The response that carries the most weight came from DiMA, the Digital Media Association, because its members are the platforms that would have to display the tags: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube. DiMA did not say whether those members would adopt them.

Instead it turned the request around and pointed upstream, at the rightsholders who wrote the proposal.

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We are following today's announcement closely and look forward to receiving more detailed and accurate AI metadata, which will strengthen our ability to give fans the transparency they deserve.

DiMA also named DDEX among the bodies it wants to work with, as Music Ally noted. That name-check is the tell. DDEX sets music metadata standards, it was not part of the July 10 announcement, and it has been building an AI-disclosure standard with Spotify since September 2025. The streaming lobby answered a new badge scheme by pointing at the metadata track it already backs.

Deezer says yes, and it already has the numbers

Deezer gave the warmest reply of the three. “It’s encouraging to see steps being taken towards a unified approach to generative AI in music,” the company said, adding it is ready to support the development of an industry-wide framework.

That enthusiasm is cheap for Deezer, because it is already doing the work. Deezer said in April it takes in roughly 75,000 fully AI-generated tracks a day, 44% of everything newly delivered to it, and it gives away an AI detection tool rather than waiting for anyone to declare anything. Apple Music has said more than a third of tracks uploaded to it are 100% AI.

Every platform already built its own version

The proposal lands in a market where the big services each solved this their own way, which is the practical reason a shared badge is hard. Tidal tags fully AI-generated music and blocks it from earning royalties. Apple Music runs transparency tags that depend on labels and distributors declaring AI use. Qobuz built detection. Deezer detects at the platform level. Spotify collects AI credits through the DDEX standard, and only where an artist chose to disclose through their label or distributor.

Two philosophies are running at once. Deezer, Tidal and Qobuz detect the AI themselves. Apple Music and Spotify wait to be told. The RIAA and IFPI tags need the second group to trust the first group’s data, and DiMA’s reply was a request for exactly that data before it commits to anything.

The gap the BBC named is still open

On July 6, the BBC’s Director of Music, Lorna Clarke, pledged AI transparency but said the commitment depended on an industry labelling standard that did not exist. The RIAA and IFPI proposed one four days later. Three days after that, the companies who would have to run it responded, and not one of them said yes.