Sony Music Entertainment and nine affiliated companies have filed a new lawsuit against Uncharted Labs, the company behind Udio. The complaint was lodged on 20 July 2026 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and identifies 30,117 sound recordings.
The dispute concerns the way generative AI music systems are trained. Sony alleges that the recordings were copied without authorisation and included in Udio's training data. These are allegations in a complaint and have not yet been established by a court.
The new case follows a decision that prevented Sony from adding tens of thousands of works to its existing 2024 action because the expansion could significantly prolong those proceedings. Sony instead brought a separate case covering the additional recordings.
Udio has previously argued that model training constitutes fair use and that its technical process does not present users with direct copies. That position remains part of the legal dispute, and no final ruling has resolved the new allegations.
The significance extends beyond the two companies. A future judgment could influence how AI music platforms obtain licences, document training datasets and compensate artists and rights holders.
This article was written from scratch by ON MEDIA.AL. The core facts were checked against the complaint and compared with Variety's reporting of 22 July 2026; statements by the parties are presented as allegations rather than findings of the court.
