Udio’s licensing deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) has prompted backlash from users angry that the AI platform abruptly disabled downloading — and some are already floating the idea of legal action.
The landmark deal, announced on Wednesday (Oct. 29), ends UMG’s involvement in copyright litigation against Udio and lays the groundwork for a new version of the platform trained on licensed music. The catch: Udio will now be a “walled garden” in which users can only stream their AI creations on the platform, with no ability to export and distribute their works.
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While this new version of Udio isn’t launching until 2026, the company immediately disabled all downloading on Wednesday — a move that has many users up in arms, especially on the r/udiomusic Reddit page.
“This feels like an absolute betrayal,” wrote one Reddit user.
“I’ve spent hundreds of $$$ and countless hours building tracks with this tool,” wrote another. “No one warned us that one day, we wouldn’t even be able to access our own music. You can’t just pull the plug and call that a ‘transition.’”
Udio offers both monthly and annual subscription plans. A Standard plan costs either $10 per month or $96 billed annually, and a Pro plan comes out to either $30 per month or $288 a year.
One unlucky Reddit user commented on Thursday (Oct. 30) that they paid for an annual subscription the day that Udio announced the UMG deal and took away download capabilities.
“I’m absolutely livid,” the user wrote. “The sole reason I paid for the service was to produce music to soundtrack short films for the students in my high school media class. Now no downloads?? This is the worst and most disgusting fraud I have ever seen. I don’t even care about the music, I just want my money.”
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In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, an Udio spokesperson said that disabling downloads is “a difficult but necessary step to support the next phase of the platform and the new experiences ahead.”
“We hate having to remove this functionality and did not make the decision lightly,” said the spokesperson. “To ease the transition, Udio is adding 1,200 credits to all Pro and Standard plans, increasing the Pro plan’s song creation limit to 10, and providing all subscribers with a one-time bonus of 1,000 non-expiring credits.”
On Reddit, Udio users are already chatting about potential recourse. Some comments say disgruntled users should ask Udio directly for refunds, while others suggest that individuals who’ve recently bought subscriptions contact their banks to cancel the charges.
Elsewhere on the Reddit page, as well as on other social media platforms like LinkedIn, users are floating the idea of litigation.
“What you have committed is fraud. Just so you understand,” wrote one user. “You may not feel any legal ramifications immediately, but not everyone who used your platform is without resources.”
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Numerous accounts have been posting Udio’s terms of service and encouraging others to send emails to the company formally opting out of provisions that could limit their legal options — namely, a clause requiring that all claims be brought in private, individual arbitration rather than in public court as a class action.
While Udio’s terms of service do indeed allow users to opt out of mandatory arbitration, opt-out notices must be sent within 30 days of registering for the service. “Otherwise, you shall be bound to arbitrate disputes on a non-class basis in accordance with these terms,” the fine print reads.
Whether ultimately brought in arbitration or in a courthouse, there are a number of potential legal claims that disgruntled Udio users might assert. There could be arguments made that disabling downloads constituted a breach of the subscription contract that Udio signed with users, or that Udio falsely advertised its services in violation of consumer protection laws. Just last year, Amazon Prime users brought such claims over changes to the cost of ad-free movie and TV streaming for subscribers.
Whether such legal claims could actually be successful, however, would depend on a judge’s interpretation of the fine print in Udio’s subscription agreement. The Amazon case, for example, was dismissed this summer after a federal judge found that Prime subscription contracts are written to give the retail giant leeway to change the terms.
