Suno switched off the models Universal and Sony are suing over

Warner settled in November 2025 and said licensed models would follow in 2026 ^[3], which puts about ten months between the signature and a shipped product ^[1]. In between, Suno signed BMG and then Believe, the second of those a day before launch ^[4], and that buys one of the three majors ^[3]. Universal and Sony are on the other side of the table, still plaintiffs in the Boston case filed in June 2024, whose fact discovery has been running some 27 months ^[9][2].

Switching the old generation off is the part with legal work in it. A model no longer sold cannot support an argument about continuing harm, which is where injunctions live, and it does nothing about what was already trained and already earned. Suno's September 1 answer admitted that audio data was obtained from YouTube using YT-DLP, while challenging whether the labels have standing to bring the claim and accusing them of anticompetitive activities extending an unlawful monopoly over music ^[11].

The other half of the trade carries no numbers. Chief executive Mikey Shulman describes v6 as a foundation for products that "open up revenue opportunities across the music ecosystem" and calls the arrangement a blueprint ^[6][7], and no rate, advance, split or equity stake appears in the announcement, so what Warner, BMG and Believe extracted is unknown outside the parties.

The cheapest input into v6 is the one nobody negotiated. Suno generates two versions of every song and keeps the signal of which one the user preferred ^[20], under terms of service granting it a perpetual, irrevocable license over any and all content, output included, for purposes including improving its models ^[21]. Jack Brody, Suno's chief product officer, says the wrong way to read the label deals is as acquiring data to train models ^[19], even though the same account lists data licensed from those partners among v6's inputs ^[18]. That either means the deals are priced as product access, or, the more interesting version, that the licensed catalogue is small enough that it could not have carried the price on its own.

So the template works, narrowly, for counterparties who can be paid in future product. It has nothing to offer Round Hill Music, which sued Suno and the data-scraping firm Bright Data on August 17 over damages the publisher says could approach or exceed a billion dollars and which says it does not intend to settle ^[15], or GEMA, which already won in Munich on July 31 ^[13], or the proposed class action filed on September 1 by Jason Isbell and three other artists over names and likenesses ^[16], which no training license addresses. One settlement, six live proceedings, four countries ^[4][14]. The counter-thesis is that the majors' repertoire was never the binding constraint on model quality and the labels have bought a cheap option on distribution instead, in which case v6 is a defensive rebuild in partnership clothing. Either way, until someone discloses a rate, the blueprint is a settlement with a launch date attached.