{"id":733192,"date":"2025-11-03T06:35:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?p=733192"},"modified":"2025-11-03T06:35:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:35:51","slug":"ai-song-generator-udio-offers-brief-window-for-downloads-after-universal-settlement-upsets-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/tech\/ai-song-generator-udio-offers-brief-window-for-downloads-after-universal-settlement-upsets-users\/","title":{"rendered":"AI song generator Udio offers brief window for downloads after Universal settlement upsets users"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By MATT O\u2019BRIEN and KELVIN CHAN
Updated 5:26 AM PST, November 2, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Taylor
Taylor Swift arrives at the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Jordan Strauss\/Invision\/AP, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Artificial intelligence song generation platform Udio said it would give its frustrated users 48 hours starting Monday to download their songs before the company shifts to a new business model to comply with a legal settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short reprieve comes after Udio on Wednesday said it had settled copyright infringement claims brought by Universal Music, a label with artists including Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake and Kendrick Lamar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI companies are now fighting so many copyright lawsuits that a tech industry lobby group, the Chamber of Progress, last week called on President Donald Trump to sign an executive order directing federal attorneys \u201cto intervene in legal cases\u201d to defend the industry\u2019s practice of building generative AI tools by feeding them on copyrighted works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing more than 50 pending federal cases, the group asked for help stopping court fights leading to \u201cpotentially company-killing penalties\u201d that threaten AI innovation. But artists have warned that AI tools built on their works also threaten their livelihoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the biggest settlement so far, AI company Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion \u2014 or $3,000 per book \u2014 to settle claims from authors who alleged the company illegally pirated nearly half a million of their works to train its chatbot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Udio and Universal didn\u2019t disclose the financial terms of their new music licensing agreements. They also said they will team up on a new streaming platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the agreement, Udio immediately stopped allowing people to download songs they\u2019ve created, which sparked a backlash and apparent exodus among paying users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know the pain it causes to you,\u201d Udio later said in a post on Reddit\u2019s Udio forum, where users were venting about feeling betrayed by the platform\u2019s surprise move and complained that it limited what they could do with their music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Udio said it still must stop downloads as it transitions to a new streaming platform next year. But over the weekend, it said it will give people 48 hours starting at 11 a.m. Eastern time Monday to keep their \u201cpast creations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUdio is a small company operating in an incredibly complex and evolving space, and we believe that partnering directly with artists and songwriters is the way forward,\u201d said Udio\u2019s post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The settlement deal was the music industry\u2019s first since Universal, along with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Records, sued Udio and another AI song generator, Suno, last year over copyright infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Udio and Suno pioneered AI song generation technology, which can spit out new songs based on prompts typed into a chatbot-style text box. Users, who don\u2019t need musical talent, can merely request a tune in the style of, for example, classic rock, 1980s synth-pop or West Coast rap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Record labels have accused the platforms of exploiting the recorded works of artists without compensating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its lawsuit filed against Udio last year, Universal sought to show how specific AI-generated songs made on Udio closely resembled Universal-owned classics like Frank Sinatra\u2019s \u201cMy Way,\u201d The Temptations\u2019 \u201cMy Girl,\u201d ABBA\u2019s \u201cDancing Queen\u201d and holiday favorites like \u201cRockin\u2019 Around the Christmas Tree\u201d and \u201cJingle Bell Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A musician-led group, the Artist Rights Alliance, said Friday that the Universal-Udio settlement represents a positive step in creating a \u201clegitimate AI marketplace\u201d but raised questions about whether independent artists, session musicians and songwriters will be sufficiently protected from AI practices that present an \u201cexistential threat\u201d to their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLicensing is the only version of AI\u2019s future that doesn\u2019t result in the mass destruction of art and culture,\u201d the group said. \u201cBut this promise must be available to all music creators, not just to major corporate copyright holders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MATT O\u2019BRIEN
O\u2019Brien covers the business of technology and artificial intelligence for The Associated Press.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KELVIN CHAN
Chan covers technology and innovation in Europe and beyond for The Associated Press.<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Udio said it would give its frustrated users 48 hours to download their songs before the company shifts to a new business model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":733195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85653,44267,483,283744,283738,168219,162048,2078,207,70873,71998,150702,3878,48758,283750,12313,283747,283741,147495,283735],"class_list":["post-733192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-abba","tag-anthropic","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artist-rights-alliance","tag-bobby-helms","tag-brenda-lee","tag-chamber-of-progress","tag-copyright","tag-donald-trump","tag-drake","tag-frank-sinatra","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-music","tag-olivia-rodrigo","tag-sony-music-entertainment","tag-taylor-swift","tag-the-temptations","tag-udio","tag-universal-music","tag-warner-records"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/taylor.webp","author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/author\/admin\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733198,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733192\/revisions\/733198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}