On July 21, 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).
Infobox
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Case | Sony Music v. Udio (second suit) |
| Filed | July 21, 2026 |
| Works asserted | 30,117 sound recordings |
| Claims | Copyright infringement (training data) |
| Status | Active (newly filed) |
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).
Current status
Newly filed as of July 21, 2026; no responsive pleading had been reported at the time of writing.
Relationships
- 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