THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS

  • A group of Elvis Presley rights holders including Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing has sued Suno in the Northern District of California.
  • Their complaint alleges copyright infringement, misuse of Presley's identity and breaches of Tennessee's 2024 ELVIS Act on AI voice cloning.
  • In a separate suit, Eight Mile Style reportedly claims more than $41 million over 269 Eminem compositions; Suno says it bars unauthorized use of artists' work.

Suno, the AI music generator, faces two new lawsuits from owners of some of the best-known catalogs in American pop music. Variety reported on November 7 that a group of Elvis Presley rights holders and Eight Mile Style, the Michigan publisher that controls a large share of Eminem's songs, had filed separate complaints against the company. Both are represented by the same team of four lawyers, including Richard Busch.

The Presley complaint

The Presley group, which includes Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing, filed a 51-page complaint in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. According to Variety, it alleges copyright infringement and the exploitation of Presley's identity whenever users put his name in a prompt. The plaintiffs also invoke Tennessee's ELVIS Act, a 2024 law that targets unauthorized AI copies of a person's voice and likeness. They say users can create tracks that reproduce Presley's vocal style without permission, and the filing includes examples of generated songs. The lawyers frame the case as a threat to future musicians, writing that the next Elvis "won't pick up a guitar."

The Eminem complaint

Eight Mile Style's suit, which FourWeekMBA says was filed late on November 6 in federal court in San Francisco, focuses on copyright. Citing the Detroit Free Press, FourWeekMBA reports that the 32-page complaint seeks $150,000 for each of 269 compositions plus damages for allegedly stripped copyright information, a total of about $41 million. The publisher reportedly cites outputs containing lyrics from "Lose Yourself" and "The Real Slim Shady," and says Suno's block on artist names can be bypassed. Eminem himself is not a plaintiff.

Suno's position and the wider fight

A Suno spokesperson told VICE that the company forbids unauthorized use of an artist's work, blocks prompts that name specific artists or songs and uses outside providers to screen uploaded audio and lyrics. No court has ruled on the new claims, which remain allegations.

The suits add to a crowded docket. Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment are already suing Suno, as is publisher Round Hill Music, while Warner Music Group settled last year. The same Presley rights holders sued Anthropic in October over 274 songs allegedly used to train Claude, which Anthropic denies.