{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2025-10-29-umg-udio-settlement-licensed-platform/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2025-10-29-umg-udio-settlement-licensed-platform/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2025-10-29-umg-udio-settlement-licensed-platform","date":"2025-10-29","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Universal Music settles with Udio and licenses a new AI music platform","deck":null,"takeaway":null,"category":"business","category_label":"Business","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"UMG and Udio announce first strategic agreements (PR Newswire)","url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/universal-music-group-and-udio-announce-udios-first-strategic-agreements-for-new-licensed-ai-music-creation-platform-302599129.html","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"prnewswire.com"},{"n":2,"title":"WMG and Udio collaborate on licensed music creation service (PR Newswire)","url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/warner-music-group-and-udio-collaborate-to-build-a-new-licensed-music-creation-service-302620656.html","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"prnewswire.com"},{"n":3,"title":"Music Business Worldwide: UMG settles Udio lawsuit","url":"https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/universal-music-settles-udio-lawsuit-strikes-deal-for-licensed-ai-music-platform/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"musicbusinessworldwide.com"},{"n":4,"title":"Digital Music News: Udio scores Kobalt licensing deal","url":"https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/04/09/udio-kobalt-deal/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"digitalmusicnews.com"},{"n":5,"title":"Music Ally: Udio reveals details of its licensed AI-music app Starstruck","url":"https://musically.com/2026/05/22/udio-reveals-details-of-its-licensed-ai-music-app-starstruck/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"musically.com"},{"n":6,"title":"Music Business Worldwide: Udio's licensed AI music app will be called Starstruck","url":"https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/udios-licensed-ai-music-app-will-be-called-starstruck-with-four-creation-modes-for-fans-report/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"musicbusinessworldwide.com"},{"n":7,"title":"Water & Music: A scoop on Udio's upcoming app, Starstruck","url":"https://newsletter.waterandmusic.com/archive/a-scoop-on-udios-upcoming-app-starstruck/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"newsletter.waterandmusic.com"},{"n":8,"title":"MBW: Sony Music sues Udio again over 30,000+ recordings","url":"https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/sony-music-files-new-lawsuit-against-ai-platform-udio-asserting-over-30000-sound-recordings-a-judge-barred-it-from-adding-to-its-original-case/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"musicbusinessworldwide.com"},{"n":9,"title":"Digital Music News: Udio fires back against supersized Sony Music lawsuit (Aug 31, 2026)","url":"https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/08/31/sony-music-udio-lawsuit-answer/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"digitalmusicnews.com"}],"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-04","orgs":["Universal Music Group","Udio"],"title":"Universal Music settles with Udio and licenses a new AI music platform","summary":"UMG settled its copyright suit against AI song generator Udio and signed recorded-music and publishing licenses for a new subscription platform trained on licensed music, the first such deal between a major label and a generative AI music service; Warner followed on 2025-11-19, and Udio's existing app became a download-restricted \"walled garden\" during the transition.","key_facts":["UMG-Udio settlement and licenses announced 2025-10-29; new service promised for 2026","Warner Music Group settled with Udio and signed a similar license on 2025-11-19","Udio's existing product stayed online with creations kept inside a walled garden plus fingerprinting and filtering","Artists and songwriters must opt in; the service lets users make remixes, covers and new songs with participating artists' voices and compositions","Later licensors reported: Kobalt (Apr 2026), Merlin, Believe; the consumer app was reported in May 2026 to be called Starstruck (Cover, Reimagine, Remix, Create modes), still unlaunched as of 2026-09 per sources found","Sony Music is the only major without a deal: after a June 29, 2026 ruling barred adding them to its June 2024 case, it filed a second SDNY suit on 2026-07-20 over 30,117 recordings identified by fingerprinting Udio's training data, alleging YouTube stream-ripping with yt-dlp; in its Aug 2026 answer Udio admitted using YouTube audio and yt-dlp but claimed fair use (MBW, Digital Music News)"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["music-generation","copyright","licensing","udio"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nUniversal Music Group, which had sued Udio (with Sony and Warner, via the RIAA) in June 2024, settled and turned the dispute into a licensing partnership. Udio committed to build a new creation-plus-listening subscription service on models trained only on authorized music, where participating artists and songwriters are credited and paid. Warner signed a similar settlement and license three weeks later. To comply before launch, Udio locked its existing app into a \"walled garden\": generated tracks could no longer be downloaded or distributed off-platform.\n\nIn a private April 2026 webinar (reported by Water & Music, Music Ally and MBW in May 2026) Udio described the coming mobile-first fan app, Starstruck, with four modes: Cover, Reimagine, Remix and Create. We found no confirmation that it had launched by 2026-09-29.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nIt was the first time a major label turned an AI music copyright lawsuit into a license, setting the template (licensed training, opt-in artists, revenue share, output controls) later followed by Warner's deal with Suno (Nov 2025) and Suno v6 (Sep 2026).","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-09-09-suno-v6-licensed-music-model","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-09-suno-v6-licensed-music-model/","date":"2026-09-09","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Suno launches v6, its first music models trained on licensed music","deck":null,"takeaway":"v6 is the clearest test yet of a licensed-training business model for generative media; the new Sony/UMG suit tests whether \"clean-room\" retraining on licensed data (but with learnings from older models) is enough.","category":"media-generation","category_label":"Media generation","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":5,"official":0,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Suno","Warner Music Group","BMG","Believe"]}],"people":[],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-04","type":"edit","text":"Added Sony Music's second suit against Udio (July 2026) and Udio's answer; Sony remains unsettled"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"edit","text":"Added MBW and Water & Music Starstruck links; re-checked, still no launch found (webinar with Kobalt was 2026-04-30)"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-04","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-04"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true}],"short_url":"https://postcutoff.com/s/universal-music-settles-udio"}