In July 2026, Sony Music filed a second copyright-infringement lawsuit against the AI music-generation company Udio, asserting 30,117 sound recordings that a judge had barred it from adding to its original case against the company (Source: musicbusinessworldwide.com). Trade coverage dated the filing July 21; the docket records the complaint as filed July 20, 2026, with the case opened and designated for ECF the following day (Source: courtlistener.com).
Infobox
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Case | Sony Music Entertainment v. Uncharted Labs, Inc. |
| Docket | No. 1:26-cv-06120 |
| Court | U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York |
| Filed | July 20, 2026 (complaint docketed; case opened July 21) |
| Judge | Alvin K. Hellerstein |
| Related to | No. 1:24-cv-04777-AKH — accepted as related July 24, 2026 |
| Works asserted | 30,117 sound recordings (Exhibit A) |
| Claims | Copyright infringement (training data) |
| Nature of suit | 820, Copyright |
| Status | Active; responsive pleading due August 27, 2026 |
Background
The original case is the June 2024 RIAA-coordinated suit by major labels against Udio in the Southern District of New York, filed alongside the parallel UMG v. Suno case in the District of Massachusetts. In discovery, the labels ran audio fingerprinting against the services' training data; Sony moved on May 22, 2026 to add 30,442 works identified that way to the Udio case, and the judge denied the expansion (Source: musicbusinessworldwide.com; musicbusinessworldwide.com).
Claims
The new complaint asserts the recordings the court declined to let Sony add to the original case — 30,117 works, slightly fewer than the 30,442 in the denied expansion motion — as a standalone infringement action (Source: musicbusinessworldwide.com).
Docket record
The docket confirms the case as Sony Music Entertainment v. Uncharted Labs, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-06120, in the Southern District of New York, nature of suit 820 (Copyright). The complaint was filed on July 20, 2026, with Exhibit A listing the sound recordings at issue; the case was designated for ECF and given its opening assignment notice on July 21, which is the date trade coverage reported as the filing date. Ten Sony-affiliated entities are named as plaintiffs alongside John Does: Sony Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Arista Music, Records Label LLC, Ultra Records LLC, LaFace Records LLC, Zomba Recording LLC, Alamo Records LLC, Volcano Entertainment III LLC and Sony Music Entertainment US Latin LLC. A Rule 7.1 statement filed the same day identifies Sony Group Corporation as their corporate parent (Source: courtlistener.com).
The plaintiffs filed a statement of relatedness to No. 1:24-cv-4777 — the 2024 RIAA-coordinated case — on the day of filing. The court accepted the case as related on July 24, 2026 and reassigned it to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who also presides over the original action. The venue and assignment the page previously recorded as reported rather than confirmed are therefore confirmed, and the judge who denied Sony's motion to expand the original case is the judge now hearing the standalone suit (Source: courtlistener.com).
An amended summons issued on August 5, 2026 after a deficiency notice on the first request. Uncharted Labs was served on August 6, 2026 through its registered agent, with a responsive pleading due August 27, 2026. Counsel of record are Moez Kaba, Mariah Rivera, Alexander Perry, Rajan Stephen Trehan and Christina Von der Ahe Rayburn for the plaintiffs, and Andrew M. Gass and Brittany N. Lovejoy, admitted pro hac vice in late August, for Uncharted Labs (Source: courtlistener.com).
Current status
Active. The docket runs to entry 27 as of August 31, 2026; entries 24 through 27, filed August 27 and August 31, appear without retrievable text in the public record, so whether Uncharted Labs answered, moved to dismiss, or obtained an extension on the August 27 deadline is not established by the sources held.
Relationships
- related: UMG Recordings v. Uncharted Labs (Udio, 2024) — the original 2024 RIAA-coordinated case, No. 1:24-cv-04777, from which these works were barred; UMG settled in October 2025 and Warner in November 2025, leaving Sony and its Arista imprints as the active plaintiffs there
- defendant: Udio (Uncharted Labs) — Uncharted Labs, Inc. d/b/a Udio.com
- related: UMG Recordings v. Suno (AI music training data) — the parallel Suno case, where UMG and Sony moved to add 61,026 works identified through the same discovery-driven fingerprinting
- related: AI Copyright Litigation — Analysis, AI Copyright — the training-data copyright landscape
- related: Media, Journalism & Entertainment — AI Deployment — music-industry AI litigation context
- related: UMG Recordings v. DistroKid — September 2026 label suit against a distributor, over undisclosed mass-generated AI tracks and copied recordings, rather than a generator