Suno Admits Using YouTube Audio to Train Its AI, Challenges Record Labels' Right to Sue Over It
Suno, the AI music-generation company, has admitted in a court filing that it obtained audio data from YouTube to train its artificial intelligence models, using a tool called YT-DLP to scrape recordings from the platform. The admission came in a 26-page answer filed on September 1 in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, responding to a lawsuit brought by major record labels including UMG Recordings, Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and Atlantic Recording Corporation (Music Business Worldwide).
The case, docketed as UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Suno, Inc. (1:24-cv-11611), began when the labels alleged that Suno copied vast quantities of copyrighted sound recordings to build its training dataset. In paragraph 49 of their complaint, the labels accused Suno of using two tools — YT-DL and YT-DLP — to circumvent YouTube's encryption and scrape copyrighted recordings. Suno's answer named only YT-DLP, an open-source program that downloads video and audio from YouTube, effectively bypassing the platform's built-in protections (Music Business Worldwide).
Rather than contesting every allegation, Suno leaned into a legal counter-attack. The company argued that the record labels have engaged in "anticompetitive activities that extend an unlawful monopoly" over the production and commercialisation of music. Its first affirmative defence asserted that any copying of copyrightable expression constitutes fair use under US copyright law, the doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without permission. Its second affirmative defence invoked copyright misuse and "unclean hands," a legal principle blocking a plaintiff from relief if they have acted improperly themselves — language Suno has used word-for-word since its first answer in August 2024 (Music Business Worldwide).
Suno also challenged whether the labels have legal standing to bring a "stream-ripping" claim at all. Stream ripping — the act of extracting audio from a streaming source to create a downloadable file — was added to the lawsuit after Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV granted the labels leave to bring the claim on August 18 under the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the US law that criminalises the breaking of digital protection measures. Suno had asked the court to throw out that claim in October 2025. It now argues that one or more labels fail the injury test under Article III of the US Constitution and are not "person[s] injured" within the meaning of the statute (Music Business Worldwide).
The labels' ability to pursue the stream-ripping angle was cleared by the court on August 27, when a US judge permitted UMG and Sony to accuse Suno of pirating YouTube content via stream ripping to train its AI (Music Business Worldwide).
The dispute extends beyond US borders. German music publisher GEMA has separately sued Anthropic and Suno over AI training, alleging that Suno used "stream-ripping techniques" to extract musical works from YouTube (Reuters via Facebook).
What makes this filing notable is the admission itself. In litigation, defendants often deny or stay silent on specifics. Suno confirmed the core fact — that it pulled audio from YouTube — and then built its defence around two arguments: that the labels cannot sue over it, and that even if they can, the copying was legally permissible. The court will now have to weigh both.
