Suno presses Apple to testify about its label deals in the UMG and Sony AI music lawsuit

The copyright fight between AI music generator Suno and two of the three major record companies has pulled in a company that is not a party to it: Apple. On October 27, Suno filed an opposition to Apple's motion, lodged on October 13 in a California federal court, to quash a subpoena seeking deposition testimony, according to Music Business Worldwide.

What Suno wants from Apple

Suno is asking for live, sworn testimony on four subjects: Apple's ongoing licensing negotiations with Universal Music Group and Sony Music, whether Apple has studied running Apple Music without one or both of their catalogs, streaming fraud on the service, and Apple's communications with the labels or the RIAA about Suno and the litigation. Apple has offered a written sworn statement covering five of the nine topics in the original subpoena, but not these four. Suno says the testimony could be restricted to outside counsel so that no one at the company would see it.

The startup links the requests to its two main defenses. On fair use, it argues that royalty terms between the labels and Apple, such as guaranteed minimums or clauses keeping AI content out of royalty pools, are relevant to whether its training harmed the market for the recordings. On copyright misuse, it claims the labels use the leverage of their catalogs to extract anti-AI terms from streaming services, going beyond what copyright protects. MBW reports that Apple says it does not currently exclude AI content from its royalty pool.

Apple's objections

Apple calls the topics irrelevant, overbroad and disproportionate, and describes them as a fishing expedition that could expose its licensing and AI strategy. It says it has already answered six subpoenas over more than a year; Suno counters that it served only two of them. Digital Music News adds that Apple asked, as an alternative, for a protective order. A hearing is scheduled for December 1, 2026, before Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi.

The wider case

UMG and Sony sued Suno in Massachusetts federal court in June 2024 over the use of their recordings to train its models; that case covers 560 recordings. Warner Music Group, initially a co-plaintiff, settled with Suno in November 2025. In September 2026, the two remaining labels filed a second suit covering 60,202 further recordings, after the court declined to let them add the works to the original case. None of the claims has been decided on the merits, and the arguments above are the parties' positions in court filings.