Traditional record industry welcomes "Disruptor"? AI music production unicorn Suno plans to raise over $1 billion in funding, with a valuation of $20 billion.

According to informed sources, the startup company Suno Inc., which uses artificial intelligence to generate music, is currently in discussions for fundraising, aiming to raise over $1 billion with a valuation of over $20 billion, which is four times its previous valuation. It has been reported that Suno has recently been in negotiations with major record companies to resolve legal disputes, which may pave the way for the startup company to operate more freely in the future. Suno had previously raised $125 million from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Matrix, and Founders Fund. According to some informed sources, the startup company's annual recurring revenue has already exceeded $1 billion. Suno's service allows users to input song cues and receive complete song content in return, usually including lyrics and singing parts. Last June, major record companies including Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group sued this startup company and its competitor Udio, accusing them of copyright infringement. These record companies claimed that these two artificial intelligence companies used their copyrighted music for training to build AI models and demanded compensation of up to $150,000 per infringing work, potentially totaling billions of dollars in damages. Suno's technology is described as "transformative," with its design intention being to "generate entirely new content, not just memorize and replicate existing information," as stated by the company's co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman in a statement during the lawsuit. Reports in June stated that these record companies were negotiating to settle the lawsuit and authorize their works to these startups to establish a compensation framework. These record companies not only requested authorization fees, but also sought equity from Suno and Udio. Meanwhile, the music industry has begun to form new models around AI-generated music with the participation of record companies. This week, Spotify announced its collaboration with major record companies and independent musicians to develop technology in their application, and last month, they also announced measures to combat AI-driven fraudulent activities. At least one streaming service company, Deezer Technology company, has taken the initiative to label AI-generated content. In a memo to employees this week, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge reiterated his intention to collaborate with AI companies to develop products, but on the condition that these companies respect the image and copyright of artists.