THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS

  • In a joint filing approved on October 28, UMG, Sony and DistroKid told a Manhattan federal court they are trying to resolve the labels' subpoena dispute; no terms were disclosed.
  • The labels want monthly counts of tracks DistroKid's detection model flagged as likely AI-generated, their streams and royalties, and how many it attributes to Suno.
  • DistroKid, which calls itself a third party, now has until November 6 to respond to the labels' request for a court order.

Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and the distributor DistroKid have told a federal court in Manhattan that they are "working on a resolution" of their dispute over a subpoena for DistroKid's AI-music data. According to Music Business Worldwide, the joint filing was signed by lawyers on October 27 and approved by Judge Arun Subramanian the next day. It does not say what a settlement would involve or whether DistroKid will hand over any records.

What the labels are asking for

The labels served the subpoena in September as part of their copyright case against Suno, which is pending in federal court in Massachusetts. On October 14 they asked the Manhattan court to enforce it, saying DistroKid had not produced a single document. They are seeking monthly figures dating back to when DistroKid began running a third-party prediction model to test uploads for AI generation: how many recordings were delivered to streaming services, how many were tested, and how many were scored as likely AI-generated in whole or in part. They also want the streams and royalties earned by flagged tracks, the number the model attributes to Suno, the model's name and vendor, and the basis for statements on false positives that DistroKid made in an October 9 response.

Under the new filing, DistroKid has until November 6 to respond to the labels' motion. A proposed order that would have required documents by October 30 has not been ruled on.

Why the data matters

Suno argues that training its models on copyrighted recordings is fair use. One factor courts weigh is whether a use harms the market for the original works, and the labels say DistroKid holds evidence on that point that nobody else has. As Hypebot noted, Suno does not track songs once users export them, which is why the labels turned to a distributor. DistroKid, which says it handles 30 to 40% of all new music worldwide, describes itself as a third party that will cooperate with the legal process, and has argued that its AI figures say little about whether Suno broke the law.

The dispute sits alongside other litigation. UMG and Sony filed a second suit against Suno on September 18 over 60,202 recordings. Separately, UMG sued DistroKid in Delaware on September 15 for copyright infringement and deceptive trade practices; Sony is not part of that case. DistroKid disputes those claims and must answer the complaint by December 4.