Jason Isbell, frontman of the 400 Unit, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston against the AI music platform Suno alongside artists Guy Forsyth, Eduardo Calle, and David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven. The suit alleges that Suno generates music based on the artists' distinctive characteristics without permission.
According to the complaint, Suno uses a "distillation of the identifying attributes of the human beings who made the songs and recordings: the qualities that make a listener say 'that is Jason Isbell.'" The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages.
Suno maintains it blocks artists' names from being used as prompts, but the suit claims those safeguards are easily circumvented—for instance by entering a name with spaces between each letter. The suit also states that "Jason Isbell's musical identity does not cease to be his property merely because sophisticated technology is involved."
A Suno spokesperson said in a statement: "We believe these claims are without merit and we intend to defend against them. Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone's name."
Suno faces separate copyright infringement suits from Sony and Universal Music Group. Warner Records, which initially joined the copyright lawsuit, withdrew to sign an official partnership with Suno instead.