AI Music News
Your independent source for AI music news and what each story means for music creators.
I track the AI music lawsuits, label licensing deals, streaming policy, and the artists testing what AI makes possible. Tool launches and reviews live in AI music tools news; interviews and analysis in AI music industry. Want it in your inbox? Get the AI music newsletter.
- 07 Oct
07 OctBase for Music is the only music company in Google's Gemini Startup Forum, and says it can predict a campaign's ROI before launch
- Google picked Base for Music for its Google for Startups Gemini Startup Forum, a 2-day summit at its Mountain View headquarters in November 2026.
- More than 100 startups from 17 countries made the cohort out of over 2,000 applications, and Base for Music says it's the only music tech company among them.
- Base for Music pulls ad spend, audience, CRM and streaming data into one marketing system for producers, labels and music companies.
- 07 Oct
07 OctMichael Smith gets 18 months in prison for his $8M AI streaming fraud, less than half what prosecutors wanted
- US District Judge John G. Koeltl sentenced Michael Smith to 18 months in prison on October 6, 2026, in Manhattan federal court.
- Prosecutors had asked for at least 46 months, the probation office recommended 24 months, and Smith's lawyers wanted probation.
- Smith also gets 2 years of supervised release and has to forfeit $8,091,843.64.
- 06 Oct
06 OctARIA's Annabelle Herd tells Australian MPs that OpenAI and Anthropic want to train AI without following copyright law
- ARIA and PPCA CEO Annabelle Herd appeared before Australia's Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, ARIA said on October 6, 2026.
- She said OpenAI and Anthropic want to train frontier AI models in Australia without having to follow its copyright laws.
- Herd said 90% of the world's sound recordings can already be licensed through 4 global deals.
- 06 Oct
06 OctIronmouse's Club Ironmouse album cover carried a Google Gemini watermark, and Trap Nation swapped it after Fortnite fans spotted it
- Fans found a Google Gemini watermark in the corner of the Club Ironmouse album cover after Fortnite used it for Ironmouse's "Meow" Jam Track.
- The album came out in January 2026, and Fortnite added the Jam Track on September 19.
- Ironmouse said she had no idea and that her team demanded the art be changed.
- 06 Oct
06 OctItaly opens an unfair-terms investigation into Suno over its moral rights waiver and US arbitration clause
- Italy's competition authority (AGCM) opened investigation CV278 into Suno's terms of service on October 6, 2026.
- The AGCM says the terms may be unfair under Article 33 of Italy's Consumer Code.
- Its concerns include unilateral price changes, account closures without notice, US arbitration and a moral rights waiver.
- 06 Oct
06 OctSuno ranks #7 on a16z's first AI consumer spending list, and it's the only music app on all 3 of its Top 100 rankings
- Andreessen Horowitz published the 7th edition of its Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps on October 5, 2026.
- For the first time it ranks apps by observed US consumer spending, using YipitData card panels.
- Suno ranks
- 05 Oct
05 OctAI music generators are sidelining African musical traditions, a University of Johannesburg study argues
- James Maisiri and Awakhiwe Thabiso Ncube of the University of Johannesburg published the study in AI & Society on September 3, 2026.
- They argue that AI music generators trained mostly on Western music erase African musical knowledge, which they call epistemic injustice.
- The paper cites a 2026 study in which Suno and Udio made 10 tracks each and failed to reproduce Kenyan Benga melodies.
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- 05 Oct
05 OctChicago musicians call a Spotify and Apple Music blackout for October 26-27 over AI music
- About 20 Chicago musicians rallied against AI-generated music outside the Chicago Federal Center on October 1, 2026.
- They wore shirts reading Human Music Only and asked for legal safeguards against AI copies of their work.
- They asked listeners to stay off Spotify and Apple Music on October 26 and 27, 2026.
- 05 Oct
05 OctJoe Bonamassa defends artists who use Suno, but draws the line at AI blues singer Eddie Dalton
- Joe Bonamassa told Blues Rock Review, in an interview published October 3, 2026, that using Suno to write a lyric is not a high crime or a misdemeanor.
- He said he has never used Suno himself, and that AI use runs wider than musicians admit because everybody is on the honor system.
- He drew the line at AI acts like Eddie Dalton sharing a category with living musicians, and called that a horrible thing.
- 05 Oct
05 OctPope Leo XIV says 'algorithms lack the spark of humanity' and calls for an alliance with artists
- Pope Leo XIV wrote on X on October 2, 2026 that it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce.
- He called the gap between art and machine output an ontological difference, and said algorithms lack the spark of humanity.
- The same day, he told artists at a Vatican meeting that the Church wants to renew its alliance with artists and cultural institutions.
- 05 Oct
05 OctAI-generated pro-Russian war songs are spreading as propaganda on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Deezer
- Ukrainian threat-intelligence nonprofit Terrecon checked 3,725 tracks on YouTube, YouTube Music, SoundCloud and Suno.
- It found 981 songs with signs of AI generation and pro-Russian war narratives, most of them published after 2024.
- Terrecon says the songs were made with AI music generators such as Suno and Udio.
- 05 Oct
05 OctSony Music has now asked platforms to remove more than 260,000 tracks as AI deepfakes spread
- Sony Music had asked streaming platforms to take down more than 260,000 tracks by the end of September 2026, according to the Financial Times.
- That is up from 135,000 takedown requests at the end of March 2026, and from 75,000 in March 2025.
- The flagged tracks include AI deepfakes imitating Adele, Harry Styles and Michael Jackson, plus bot-driven bulk uploads.
- 02 Oct
02 OctKelly Clarkson says she loves AI, but AI artists should get their own chart
- Kelly Clarkson said on the Las Culturistas podcast, in coverage published October 1, 2026, that she loves AI and uses it artistically.
- She said AI artists should not compete with humans on the same chart and called for a separate one.
- She compared it to the Olympics with robots competing against humans.
- 01 Oct
01 OctIMPF and IMPEL publish 7 AI licensing principles, and the song must be valued at least equally with the recording
- IMPF and IMPEL published a joint framework of 7 principles for generative AI licensing on September 30, 2026.
- The one principle they call non-negotiable is that the song must be valued at least equally with the recording, absent other salient factors.
- In 2021, recording rights took 53% of UK streaming revenue and publishing rights took 15%, according to the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
- 01 Oct
01 OctKenjiro Tsuda's AI voice case: Tokyo court rules a voice is a publicity right, but rejects his TikTok takedown
- The Tokyo District Court ruled on September 30, 2026 that a person's voice is protected by the publicity right, the first ruling of its kind in Japan.
- The court dismissed voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's demand that TikTok remove 188 AI-narrated videos, because the videos had already left TikTok's servers.
- Under the court's test, using a performer's voice without permission infringes when the voice draws customers and the use is solely aimed at exploiting that pull.
- 01 Oct
01 OctProsecutors want Michael Smith in prison for at least 46 months over his $8M AI streaming fraud
- Prosecutors asked Judge John G. Koeltl to sentence Michael Smith to at least 46 months in prison, in a letter dated September 28, 2026 and filed September 29.
- 46 months is the bottom of the 46 to 57 month guidelines range. Smith's lawyers want probation, and the probation office recommends 24 months.
- The letter says Smith's catalog drew 80.9 million YouTube Music family-plan streams in April 2023, against 9.3 million for Taylor Swift's entire catalog.
- 01 Oct
01 OctThomson Reuters v. ROSS: the first US appeals ruling on AI training rejects fair use, with the RIAA and NMPA on the winning side
- The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled on September 29, 2026 that ROSS Intelligence's AI training on Westlaw headnotes was not fair use.
- It is the first ruling by a federal appeals court on whether training AI on copyrighted works is fair use.
- The 32-page precedential opinion by Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves found 3 of the 4 fair use factors weighed against ROSS.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find AI music copyright news and lawsuit updates?
The AI Music Lawsuit Tracker follows every major AI music case: RIAA v. Suno, RIAA v. Udio, GEMA v. Suno, Concord v. Anthropic, and AFM v. Universal and Warner. Each tracker lists the filings, key events, and current status. Major rulings land in this news feed the day they break.
How often is AI music news published on The AI Musicpreneur?
New stories go up most weekdays, and this feed updates daily. Every Friday, the AI Music Briefing newsletter rounds up the week's biggest industry stories, and the weekly Top 5 recap covers what mattered and why.
What is the difference between AI music news and AI music tools news?
This page covers the industry: lawsuits, label deals, streaming policy, and artist stories. AI music tools news covers the products: launches, feature updates, reviews, comparisons, and tutorials. A story about a single tool lives there; everything else lands here.