Music Labels Win Right to Question Former Menlo Ventures Executive Over Deleted Suno Post
Universal Music Group and Sony Music can now question a former Menlo Ventures principal under oath. A federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts, Paul G. Levenson, granted their request on October 26, 2026. The person is C.C. Gong, and the questions centre on a social media post she later deleted.
The post, dated February 26, said she had shifted most of her listening to Suno, an artificial intelligence service that generates songs from text prompts. She wrote that she was tired of Spotify giving her the same overplayed recommendations, according to Music Business Worldwide.
The post sits inside a larger fight. In June 2024, Sony, Universal and Warner sued Suno and Udio, another AI music company, in the United States. The labels alleged the companies trained their AI models on copyrighted music without permission. They asked the courts for statutory damages, a fixed sum set by US copyright law, of up to $150,000 per song or work allegedly infringed. The companies have not been found liable, and the case is ongoing.
On October 23, UMG and Sony filed a motion in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. They argued that Gong's post bears directly on how Suno affects the market for their recordings. That point matters because of what is known as the fourth fair use factor. Fair use is a legal defence that allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission, and the fourth factor asks whether the use harms the market for the original work.
The labels' path to Gong has been slow. On August 20, they subpoenaed Menlo Ventures for testimony, including about the post. A subpoena is a legal order requiring a person or firm to answer questions or hand over material. On a September 24 call, Menlo's lawyers said the firm could not obtain the information sought about the post. On October 5, they said the firm would send a witness on the posting and deletion of the post, but not on Gong's personal listening habits.
Then came the departure. On October 12, Menlo's lawyers told the labels that Gong had left the firm at the end of September. The labels were told twelve days after a September 30 deadline for gathering facts in the case.
The judge's order lets UMG and Sony serve a deposition subpoena on Gong. A deposition is sworn questioning held outside a courtroom, with lawyers present and a written record kept. The labels must depose her within 30 days of the order, which means by November 25, 2026.
For the wider industry, the case is a test of how courts weigh personal listening habits as evidence about the market. For listeners, it is a reminder that a deleted post can still end up in a courtroom. The next hard date is late November, when Gong is due to be questioned.
