Reservoir sues Suno and Anthropic, alleging AI training on its songs

Reservoir filed both complaints on Oct. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, according to Billboard and Music Business Worldwide. The Suno suit covers 1,050 compositions and the Anthropic suit covers the lyrics of 853 compositions, including Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now", Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" and Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach". The amounts pleaded total just over $186 million against Suno and just over $151.4 million against Anthropic, and Reservoir also seeks injunctions and the destruction of copies kept in training data.

An Anthropic spokesperson told Billboard the company disagrees with the allegations and intends to defend the case vigorously. Suno declined to comment, Billboard reported.

Why it matters: The suits add to a growing list of music-industry copyright claims against AI developers, which argue that training is fair use. Suno has licensing deals with Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe, while Universal Music Group and Sony Music are still suing it.