Rights holders for Elvis Presley's music, including Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing, have sued AI music generator Suno in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the company of copyright infringement and of violating Tennessee's ELVIS Act, a 2024 law that protects against AI voice cloning. Eminem's publisher, Eight Mile Style, filed its own copyright suit against Suno. Both cases were reported on November 7.
The Presley complaint runs 51 pages. It alleges that Suno trained its models on copyrighted recordings without permission and that users can reference Presley by name to generate tracks with vocals mirroring his "rich vocal timbre," which the plaintiffs say exploits his identity.
Suno has defended its practices. In a statement, a Suno spokesperson said "Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone's name or likeness." The company said it does not allow prompts that name specific artists or songs and that it works with third parties to screen uploads. In earlier proceedings, Suno has argued that its model training is fair use.
Key facts
- 01Elvis Presley rights holders, including Authentic Brands Group, sued Suno in the Northern District of California.
- 02The 51-page Presley complaint alleges copyright infringement and violations of Tennessee's 2024 ELVIS Act.
- 03Eight Mile Style's separate suit cites Eminem's "Lose Yourself," "Without Me" and "The Real Slim Shady."
- 04Suno says it blocks prompts naming specific artists or songs and works with third parties to screen uploads.
- 05Suno raised $400M in June at a $5.4B valuation.
Eight Mile Style is a limited liability company that controls hundreds of Eminem compositions. Its complaint says Suno trained on Eminem's music and lyrics without permission, and it cites "Lose Yourself," "Without Me" and "The Real Slim Shady," including AI-generated examples that the publisher says reproduce Eminem's lyrics and vocal style. Eminem is not a party to the case, and his representative did not respond to a request for comment.
Initial coverage of the filings did not report a damages figure or filing date for either Suno suit. The same legal team, Richard Busch, Mark Block, David Niemierzycki and Andrew Davis, represents both the Presley group and Eight Mile Style. "The next Elvis won't pick up a guitar," the attorneys wrote in the Presley complaint.
The two cases add to a long list of music-industry litigation against Suno. Universal Music Group and Sony Music sued the company earlier, while Warner Music Group settled with Suno last year. Licensing deals with WMG, BMG and Believe powered Suno's v6 model, released in September, and UMG and Sony then sued again over v6, calling it "the fruit of the same poisoned tree."
Suno also faces a class action brought by Jason Isbell, in which the company has denied wrongdoing and said it did "nothing unlawful," and a separate suit from Round Hill Music. Separately, Suno raised $400 million in June at a $5.4 billion valuation.
Both plaintiff groups are pursuing other AI companies as well. The Presley rights holders sued Anthropic in October over 274 songs, seeking $48.6 million, and Eight Mile Style has sued Meta for roughly $110 million over 243 recordings.
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