THE BIG STORY: If you needed another clear sign that artificial intelligence is seeping into every aspect of American cultural life, here’s one: An AI artist just signed a record deal, the hallowed milestone of success for any emerging musician.
As first reported by Billboard last week, Xania Monet — the avatar of a woman named Telisha Jones who writes her own lyrics but uses Suno to create the music — inked a record contract worth millions. The deal has quickly become the talk of the industry, including from stars who have spoken out, including Kehlani, who said: “I don’t respect it.”
But…what exactly is a label buying here? It remains unclear the extent to which you can secure intellectual property rights to AI-generated songs, raising hurdles for monetizing them. And platforms like Suno are still facing trillion-dollar infringement lawsuits that essentially claim the technology itself is illegal. For more, go read our full story.
You’re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here.
Other top stories this week…
BLIGE CASE TOSSED – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group claiming Mary J. Blige’s enduring 1992 hit “Real Love” infringed the oft-sampled 1973 funk song “Impeach the President” by the Honey Drippers, which has been used by Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Doja Cat and many others over the years. The judge said the two songs were so different that nobody would hear the earlier song: “The songs do not sound the same.”
DIDDY SENTENCING – Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs urged a federal judge to sentence him to just 14 months in prison on his prostitution convictions, asking him to reject the kind of “draconian” punishment sought by prosecutors. Because the star has already served 13 months in jail since he was arrested, that sentence would see him released almost immediately: “It is time for Mr. Combs to go home.”
LETTERS OF SUPPORT – To help make that argument, Diddy’s lawyers filed dozens of letters from supporters, pleading with the judge to show lenience toward the rapper when he sentences him next month. They came from Diddy’s mother and kids, from ex-girlfriend Yung Miami and from an executive at hip-hop label Quality Control Music — among many others.
SUNO SUIT 2.0 – Separate from the Xania Monet situation, the major record labels filed an amended version of their copyright lawsuit against the AI music firm, adding new allegations that the company illegally “stream-ripped” songs from YouTube to train its models. That’s a hugely important new claim: In a separate such lawsuit against Anthropic, a federal judge ruled this summer that AI training itself is likely a legal “fair use” but that using pirated works to do it could lead to many billions in potential damages.
FTC, YEAH YOU KNOW ME – The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster accusing the concert giants of advertising misleading ticket prices and allowing scalpers to buy up tickets and resell them at inflated prices. The case came months after the agency sued a ticket broker that allegedly used thousands of fake Ticketmaster accounts to buy and resell tickets to Taylor Swift concerts and other events — and two years after Live Nation was hit with a sweeping monopoly lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice.
HYPE VID SETTLEMENT – Mike Tyson settled a lawsuit claiming he illegally used the Jay-Z, DMX and Ja Rule song “Murdergram” in an Instagram video promoting his boxing match against Jake Paul. The case was filed by Ty Fyffe, a producer and co-writer of the 1998 track who claimed that Tyson had willfully infringed his copyrights by using the song in a training video ahead of his much-hyped fight with Paul.
LOSE YOUR … CASE? – Meta urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from Eight Mile Style, a music publisher that owns hundreds of Eminem songs, which claims the social media giant made “Lose Yourself” and other iconic tracks available to billions of users. In the motion, Facebook’s lawyers argued the case was “remarkably short on specifics” about actual infringing material: “Fanciful estimates are not a substitute for well-pleaded facts,” the company wrote.
NEVER MEANT TO CAUSE YOU ANY PAIN – The Prince estate asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by the late singer’s Purple Rain co-star Apollonia (Patty Kotero) that claims the estate is trying to “steal” her name, arguing it has no intention of forcing her to change her name — and has repeatedly told her as much. The filing did say, however, that Apollonia secured her own trademarks during “the chaotic period following Prince’s death.”
SEX TAPE LEAK CASE – Colombian pop star Beéle was hit with a lawsuit alleging invasion of privacy and sexual cyberharassment from ex-girlfriend Isabella Ladera, claiming he is responsible for leaking their sex tape. Beéle’s reps have denied that he was the source of the leak and said the singer is “also a victim,” but Ladera’s lawsuit placed the blame squarely on him: “Only two people had the videos, and Ladera had already erased them almost a year and a half before.”
MEGAN THEE PLAINTIFF – Lawyers for Megan Thee Stallion argued in court filings that the social media personality DJ Akademiks must reveal whether Tory Lanez sent him a confidential DNA testing report during the singer’s criminal case. The filings came amid discovery in a defamation case against Milagro Gramz, a gossip blogger and ardent online defender of Lanez.
