By Blake Brittain

June 5 (Reuters) - The world's largest instrumental musicians union sued Warner Music Group WMG.O and Universal Music Group UMG.AS in Manhattan federal court on Friday for allegedly licensing its members' work to tech companies for AI training without permission from the musicians.

The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada told the court that the settlements of copyright disputes of the labels with AI music generators Suno and Udio wrongly allowed the companies to continue using its members' recordings without compensating them.

AFM asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages from the labels for allegedly breaking their labor contract.

Spokespeople for the labels and the union did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint. Spokespeople for Suno and Udio, who are not defendants in the case, also did not immediately respond to comment requests.

The labels and Sony Music sued Udio and Suno in 2024, alleging the AI companies unlawfully copied their recordings to teach their systems to create music that will "directly compete with, cheapen, and ultimately drown out" human artists. The cases are part of a wave of lawsuits brought by copyright owners against tech companies for using their material in AI training without permission.

Warner and Universal settled their cases against Udio last year. Warner also settled with Suno last year, while Universal's case against Suno is still ongoing. The settlements will allow the AI companies to use licensed music from the labels in their models.

Sony Music has not settled with either company and is not named in AFM's complaint.

AFM, an affiliate of AFL-CIO, argued in its lawsuit that Warner and Universal violated their labor agreement by allowing the AI companies to do "exactly" what the labels "warned about: Training AI models to generate supposedly 'new' sound recordings derived from music ingested into their models."

"While the defendants protected their own interests and created a significant source of new revenue with the retrospective settlements and prospective licenses, they have refused to compensate the musicians whose work – created with their own instruments and through their talent, creativity, and hard work – is fed into AI machines for profit," the lawsuit said.

The case is American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada v. Warner Music Group Corp, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:26-cv-04760.

For AFM: Eyad Asad of Cohen Weiss & Simon

For the labels: attorney information not yet available

Read more:

Music labels sue AI companies Suno, Udio for US copyright infringement

Warner Music Group settles copyright case with Suno for licensed AI music

Warner Music Group, Udio settle copyright case, plan new AI song creation platform