Suno Tries to Break into Music Mainstream With New Model ‘v6’

Suno has spent months collecting music licensing deals like Infinity Stones — and now it has a product to show for it.

The AI music generation company has revealed details about its suite of new models, all built on its licensing deals with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe. Dubbed “V6,” the company said the collection of technology represented its most powerful models yet, with its use incorporating revenue sharing for artists and their labels. The approach kickstarts a new era that it believes will “make a bigger music industry,” according to chief product officer Jack Brody.

“It’s really kind of making good on this long-term effort to not only grow the pie for the industry, but to grow the pie in a way that benefits everyone and creates opportunities for the existing music ecosystem and artists and musicians of every size and shape to benefit from that,” Brody said in a recent interview. “That’s kind of what this is all about.”

The models, which will start rolling out to users on Wednesday, are split into three. “v6,” the flagship model available for Suno’s Pro and Premier tiers, allows users to produce songs across several genres and styles with specific instructions, letting them change things such as one lyric without a complete remorphing of a tune or create songs using text, audio, images and videos. Its “wild” variant, built for exploration, allows users across the costlier tiers to create sonic planes that sound more ambitious with less predictability across each generation. Its “mini” variant is the only “v6” model available to all users, a simpler music generation model Brody claimed remained a step above its competitors.

“If you were to exclude v6 and v6-wild for a moment, v6-mini would be the best music model in the world,” Brody said. “It is better than any other competitor’s best paid model, and we’re super excited to give it away for free.”

The model release marks the biggest test in Suno‘s quest to legitimize itself within the music industry, a journey that has seen both the company and the music generation sphere at large lambasted by artists even as it strikes deals with labels and publishing companies. It still faces copyright infringement lawsuits from labels Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, among others. Round Hill Music sued the company last month as well, refusing to settle, while Variety reported last week that Mary J. Blige ended an advertising partnership with Suno after “someone who presented themselves as Ms. Blige’s official representative” made a deal that Blige was “uncomfortable” with.

Brody said that Suno hoped the new models reflected the “very long period of hard work and deep conversations around what matters to all the different constituents,” though he recognized the company still needed to do more to earn the goodwill of artists skeptical of how its models were trained. “This is just a single moment in time, and I think we just need to continue to prove over and over again through our actions that we are here to build a company that empowers creatives,” he said.

“I don’t think any one moment is going to change the mind of somebody who is a skeptic,” he added. “What I have seen firsthand is that the main thing that will help somebody see what this technology actually is and how we are actually shaping it as a company is when they use it, and I think a lot of people who might be naysayers around this technology haven’t actually experienced it, haven’t actually seen how it can empower their creative journey.”

Such goodwill will be needed for the second product in Suno’s two-phase project: a remixing tool where artists can opt into letting fans remix songs from their catalogs, similar to products such as Hook and Spotify’s forthcoming AI remix tool. Brody said that product, which remains in development, involves conversations surrounding safeguards to protect artists as they contribute to the “consented version of derivative music experiences,” one that could create new revenue streams upon licensed remixes. “I think there’s some genuine excitement for that,” he says.