Suno sued over Elvis voice and an Eminem publisher’s 269 songs

By Tom Whitfield

Two federal complaints filed Friday in the Northern District of California seek damages that could exceed $50 million and about $41 million from Massachusetts-based AI music generator Suno.

The plaintiffs are a group of Elvis music rights holders and Eight Mile Style, the independent publisher behind many of Eminem’s early hits. Both complaints include examples of AI songs that allegedly mimic Presley’s sound or replicate Eminem’s lyricism. Attorney Richard Busch leads the same legal team for both plaintiffs.

What does the ELVIS Act test?

The Presley case is among the first major tests of Tennessee’s Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security Act, known as the ELVIS Act. The law took effect in 2024 and protects artists from unauthorized commercial use of their voice, image and likeness, with AI voice cloning as a specific target.

The Presley plaintiffs include Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing. According to the 51-page complaint, Suno violated the law by allowing users to generate tracks that imitate Presley’s voice. The filing says damages could exceed $50 million.

“All of the humanity, history, despair, and triumph that constitutes Elvis’ identity was stolen and is stored on servers and harnessed by Suno to make massive amounts of money,” the Presley complaint said.

“The next Elvis won’t pick up a guitar. Suno’s ravenous race to the bottom aims to make human creativity obsolete,” the complaint added.

The case will test whether the 2024 law can reach commercial AI services that imitate a protected voice without requiring users to name the artist.

What does Eight Mile Style allege?

According to the lawsuit, Michigan-based independent music publisher Eight Mile Style controls 269 compositions, including Eminem hits “Lose Yourself,” “The Real Slim Shady” and “Stan.” Eminem is not a party. The publisher seeks about $41 million and says Suno never authorized it to copy, reproduce or otherwise use its copyrighted music.

The filing alleges Suno trained its AI model on Eight Mile Style’s music and built its business on copyright infringement at a previously unseen scale. It says the strategy was to infringe, make billions as a first mover and settle cheaply later.

The complaint says seeking forgiveness was more profitable for Suno than seeking permission, which it says the company could have done but consciously chose not to do.

Suno denied both lawsuits. A company spokesperson said the platform does not allow prompts for specific artists’ names or songs and works with third-party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse.

“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 Suno spokesperson said.

The lawsuits dispute those safeguards. Eight Mile Style’s filing says users can request a Slim Shady-style track with descriptors including aggressive rap, rapid-fire flow, dark humor, male rapper and horrorcore without typing Eminem’s name.

Suno’s defense now centers on filters that the plaintiffs say can be evaded through stylistic descriptions.

Is licensing overtaking litigation?

The lawsuits arrive as some record labels that sued AI music companies shift toward licensing them. Payout terms have not been disclosed, and musicians continue to ask who benefits. Warner Music Group settled its case against Suno last year and signed a licensing deal with the company.

Suno has since struck deals with WMG, BMG and Believe. Those partnerships helped create its first label-backed model, released in September. The new model prompted another lawsuit from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, which allege it still infringes their copyrighted works.

Ongoing copyright litigation also includes suits from independent publishers Round Hill Music and Reservoir, alongside UMG and Sony. A separate group holding rights to 274 Elvis songs, including “Don’t Be Cruel” and “All Shook Up,” has accused Anthropic of using them to train the Claude tool. Anthropic denied the claim.

Licensing has not ended copyright exposure for Suno, the labels or the publishers still litigating.

How do the Anthropic and Meta cases compare?

Several Presley rights holders and Eight Mile Style have also sued other AI companies. Authentic Brands Group and other Presley publishers filed a federal suit against San Francisco-based Anthropic last month, alleging that the company used Presley’s songs without permission to train its online agent Claude. Anthropic disputes the allegations.

Eight Mile Style sued Meta in May 2025, claiming it infringed Eminem copyrights across Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram libraries. A federal judge in Michigan recently ruled that the case could proceed to discovery.

The parallel cases will broaden the court record on training data and platform liability beyond Suno.

Can Suno protect a $5.4 billion valuation?

Suno raised $400 million in a June funding round and carried a $5.4 billion valuation despite its legal troubles. Most of the lawsuits against the company were filed after that round.

The next legal outcomes will show whether Suno can use licensing to contain damages and preserve the valuation recorded before most of the litigation.