The American Federation of Music (AFM), the union for session musicians, has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group (WMG). The AFM alleges that the two record labels have licensed recordings to prominent artificial intelligence (A.I.) music generator companies Suno and Udio and have failed to pay or give credit to AFM members who performed on those recordings.

On June 5, 2026, AFM filed its lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint focuses on deals the two labels made with the two A.I. companies which the union claims caused the “New Use” provision in its collective bargaining agreement to be activated. According to the union, this provision required the record labels to pay their members when their recordings are put to a new commercial use. The union further asserts the settlements made money for the labels but failed to do so for the session musicians who performed on the recordings.

The union is seeking monetary damages as well as an order that the labels disclose which recordings were used in the A.I. training sets. 

According to the complaint:
“The AFM brings this lawsuit because defendants, two of the largest music companies in the world, have licensed sound recordings on which AFM represented musicians have worked, without compensation or credit, to A.I. companies. At the same time, they have refused to provide information to the AFM about which recordings and what work is being licensed.”

In 2024, UMG, WMG, and Sony Music first sued Suno and Udio claiming that the A.I. companies committed enormous copyright infringement by training their A.I. models on thousands of songs without authorization. 

The labels claim that the deals with A.I. companies that allow them to train their A.I. models on the labels’ catalogs are needed to create an A.I. system that protects and pays compensation for artists.

In October 2025, UMG settled with Udio. The settlement provided compensation and a license agreement for a new A.I. music platform to begin in 2026.

WMG also settled with Udio in November of 2025. In addition, WMG settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against Suno. These settlements will permit the A.I. companies to utilize licensed music from the record labels in their A.I. models.

Sony Music has not settled with Udio or Suno and is not a party to the lawsuit filed by AFM.

According to plaintiff’s complaint, “While the defendants protected their own interests and created a significant source of new revenue with their retrospective settlements and prospective licenses, they have refused to compensate the musicians whose work —created with their own instruments and through their creativity, and hard work- is fed into A.I. machines for profit.”

One would think this is the type of case that will settle.

GLENN T. LITWAK is a veteran entertainment attorney based in Santa Monica, CA. He has represented platinum selling recording artists, GRAMMY-winning music producers, hit songwriters, management and production companies, music publishers and independent record labels. Litwak is also a frequent speaker at music industry conferences around the country, such as South by Southwest and the Billboard Music in Film and TV Conference. Litwak has been selected as a “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyer magazine for 2022-2025. Email Litwak at gtllaw59@gmail.com or visit glennlitwak.com.

This article is a very brief overview of the subject matter and does not constitute legal advice.

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