Elvis Presley promoting Jailhouse Rock in 1957. MGM publicity photo, Library of Congress (public domain)
The King is going to court against the robots. A coalition of Elvis Presley rights holders and Eight Mile Style, the publisher that controls hundreds of Eminem recordings, have filed separate federal lawsuits against AI music generator Suno, according to Variety. Both say Suno lets users churn out songs that trade on their artists without a license.
Key Takeaways
- The Presley group, which includes Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing, sued in federal court in Northern California.
- It claims Suno violates Tennessee’s ELVIS Act, the 2024 law covering voice cloning, and infringes 859 combined works, per Courthouse News.
- Eight Mile Style says Suno lets users generate songs and lyrics that mirror tracks like “Lose Yourself” and “The Real Slim Shady.” Eminem himself is not a plaintiff.
- Suno says it bans prompts naming specific artists and songs and screens uploads for misuse.
The Full Story
The Presley complaint runs 51 pages and accuses Suno of exploiting the singer’s identity whenever users invoke his name, generating tracks that mimic his “rich vocal timbre” without permission. Courthouse News reports the plaintiffs say they never authorized Suno to use Presley’s name, image, likeness or works for AI training “or any other purpose.”
The lawyers did not hold back. “The next Elvis won’t pick up a guitar,” they wrote, calling Suno’s business “a ravenous race to the bottom” that aims “to make human creativity obsolete.” The same legal team, led by Richard Busch, represents Eight Mile Style, which alleges Suno infringes its copyrights by producing lyrics and songs that replicate Eminem’s catalog.
Suno pushed back in a statement to Variety. “Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone’s name or likeness, and we prohibit any unauthorized use of an artist’s work,” a spokesperson said, adding that the company blocks prompts for specific artists’ names and songs and uses third-party screening.
The suits pile onto Suno’s legal headaches. Universal Music Group and Sony Music are still suing, as is Round Hill Music, while Warner Music Group settled and licensed its catalog. A separate class-action bid led by Americana singer Jason Isbell claims users can dodge Suno’s filters with tricks like spacing out an artist’s name. Suno denies those claims. None of it has dented the company’s value yet: it raised $400 million in June at a $5.4 billion valuation, Variety reports.
The Social Conversation
The case lands as the music business tests whether state likeness laws like Tennessee’s ELVIS Act can rein in AI voice clones. The same Presley publishers sued Anthropic last month over song lyrics, and Eight Mile Style is already in court with Meta. Both companies deny the claims.
