Suno says MLC has not complied with streaming-data subpoena

Suno and Udio seek MLC streaming data

The Mechanical Licensing Collective is the US nonprofit that collects and distributes certain digital royalties to publishers and songwriters, according to Billboard. Suno and Udio's petition asks for monthly figures by label for eight streaming services, back to 2021, including play counts and match status, a note.com report said. Suno says the MLC has not complied with its subpoena, which seeks data on how the streaming market changed after Suno launched in 2023, Billboard reported. The MLC declined to comment on the subpoenas.

Suno argues the data is "highly relevant" to the labels' theory that AI music has eaten into their market share and royalty distributions. According to Billboard, the data could be key to the court's fair use calculation. Among other factors, the judge must weigh whether Suno-generated tracks are now competing with the same music used to train the AI model.

The case has two phases

The copyright litigation has two phases. The first covers 560 works and has a statutory damages ceiling of about $84 million. The second covers 60,202 works, about 108 times as many, and its ceiling is more than $9 billion, more than 100 times the first phase's figure. Both are statutory maximums, not estimates of actual loss, according to the note.com report.

The Recording Industry Association of America filed the original complaints in June 2024 on behalf of Universal, Sony and Warner, Tech Times reported. Warner settled its lawsuits against Suno and Udio by November 2025, accepting licensing deals. Universal settled with Udio around the same time. Sony remained in active litigation against both companies as of August 2026, according to Tech Times.

Labels seek similar data from DistroKid

The MLC dispute is one of several discovery fights in the case. UMG and Sony have asked a court to order DistroKid to hand over records of AI-generated uploads and streams, a 19 October 2026 note.com report said. Billboard reported that the labels want a monthly tally of AI-generated tracks passing through the distributor, plus the streams and royalties each generated. The labels say the figures will help prove machine-generated music competes with human-made works. DistroKid has refused, saying the data has no bearing on the central issue of AI training. UMG is separately suing DistroKid for flooding streaming platforms with AI-generated material.

What happens next

The MLC has until 30 October 2026 to respond to Udio's petition, and Udio must reply by 13 November 2026, according to the note.com report. Discovery in the Suno case is scheduled through mid-2027, after which a judge will decide the fair use question, Billboard reported.