Elvis and Eminem Rights Holders Sue AI Music Generator Suno
Two federal lawsuits accuse Suno of training on Elvis Presley and Eminem songs without permission, with Eminem's publisher seeking about $41 million.
The owners of Elvis Presley’s music and the publisher behind many of Eminem’s biggest hits have filed separate federal lawsuits against Suno, the artificial intelligence startup whose software turns text prompts into complete songs. The suits accuse the company of training its models on their catalogs without permission and of letting users produce music that imitates the two artists. One of the complaints is also an early test of a Tennessee law written to stop unauthorized AI copies of a performer’s voice.
What happened
Both complaints were filed on Nov. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, according to reports by the AI news site MLQ and the music outlet DancehallMag. The British music magazine Dork, citing Billboard, reported that the same legal team brought both cases. MLQ identified one of the lawyers as Richard Busch, a copyright litigator who represented Marvin Gaye’s family in the “Blurred Lines” case.
The first suit was brought by Eight Mile Style, a Detroit-based music publisher that controls the rights to 269 Eminem compositions, including “Lose Yourself,” “Stan” and “The Real Slim Shady.” Eminem himself is not a plaintiff. The publisher alleges that Suno copied the compositions to train its music generator and then let users create songs and lyrics resembling his work.
Eight Mile Style is asking for about $41 million. According to DancehallMag and MLQ, that figure is made up of the $150,000 statutory maximum for each of the 269 works, or $40.35 million, plus $672,000 tied to the alleged removal of copyright management information, the data that identifies who owns a work. That is the amount the publisher is asking for. No court has awarded it.
The second suit concerns Presley, who died in 1977. Dork named the plaintiff as Elvis Presley Enterprises, a division of Authentic Brands Group, the licensing company that controls much of the singer’s intellectual property. MLQ described the plaintiffs as a group that includes Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing. According to MLQ, the 51-page complaint alleges that Suno copied 859 Presley compositions for training. Dork reported that the complaint names recordings such as “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Return to Sender.” The reports reviewed did not say what damages the Presley plaintiffs are seeking.
The voice-cloning claim
The Presley complaint goes beyond copyright. It alleges that Suno violated the Presley estate’s right of publicity, meaning control over his name, image and likeness, by allowing users to generate vocals that sound like him. The suit relies in part on Tennessee’s Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act, known as the ELVIS Act. Passed in 2024, the law covers unauthorized AI uses of a person’s voice and image and can hold liable companies accused of supplying tools for unauthorized cloning.
According to Dork, the complaint cites videos that allegedly show synthetic recordings resembling Presley. MLQ reported that the plaintiffs say entering his name into Suno’s “Create” feature can produce music built on his likeness. They also say that as recently as October, lyrics containing his name produced an Elvis-like vocal, despite Suno’s statements that it blocks artist names. “The next Elvis won’t pick up a guitar,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote, according to MLQ.
Lark-Marie Antón, a spokesperson for Authentic Brands Group, told Billboard that the lawsuit and its evidence “speak for themselves,” Dork reported.
Suno’s response
Suno had not filed a response in court as of the latest reports, and none of the claims has been tested before a judge. In a statement to Billboard, quoted by DancehallMag and MLQ, the company said it “exists to help people create new, original music” and is “always working to strengthen our guardrails.” Suno said it does not allow prompts that name specific artists or songs, and that it uses outside providers to screen uploaded audio and lyrics for possible misuse. The company also said it would keep adding safeguards to protect artists and users.
Background
The new cases add to a growing pile of legal challenges against Suno and other AI developers over how their systems are trained:
- In 2024, Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group sued Suno and its rival Udio, accusing them of large-scale copyright infringement.
- In November 2025, Warner dropped its case against Suno in exchange for a licensing deal under which Suno is to launch licensed models in 2026 and retire its current ones, according to MLQ. Universal and Sony are still pursuing their claims.
- Suno raised $250 million at a $2.45 billion valuation in November 2025, MLQ reported.
- Weeks before the Suno filing, Presley’s rights holders sued Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, alleging it trained on Presley songs. Anthropic has said it disagrees with the claims.
- Eight Mile Style has sued Meta, and it sued Spotify in 2019 in a streaming dispute that a federal judge decided in Spotify’s favor in 2024, according to DancehallMag.
The cases are at an early stage. Suno is expected to respond in court in the coming weeks. How judges handle the ELVIS Act claim could matter well beyond this case, because it is one of the first major tests of a state law aimed squarely at AI voice cloning.
