Lawsuit tracker
Sony v. Udio (second suit)
Sony Music Entertainment et al. v. Uncharted Labs, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.), filed July 20, 2026
| Plaintiffs | Sony Music Entertainment and nine affiliated labels, including Arista Records and LaFace Records |
|---|---|
| Defendants | Uncharted Labs, Inc. (d/b/a Udio) |
| Court | U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York |
| Filed | 2026-07-20 |
| Status | Active |
| Content type | sound recordings |
| Last updated | 2026-07-22 |
The claims
Infringement of post-1972 sound recordings; infringement of pre-1972 recordings protected under the Music Modernization Act; and DMCA circumvention over alleged stream-ripping from YouTube using the tool YT-DLP. Sony seeks statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work, up to $2,500 per act of circumvention, and an injunction.
What has happened
Discovery in the original 2024 label case against Udio let Sony inspect Udio’s training data, where audio fingerprinting identified hundreds of thousands of its recordings, according to the new complaint. Sony moved to add more than 30,000 of them to that case; the court denied the motion in a ruling reported as issued June 29, 2026, while noting plaintiffs have the right to seek to stop infringement of all their copyrighted works — just not necessarily in that lawsuit. Rather than appeal, Sony filed this separate complaint on July 20, 2026, asserting 30,117 recordings it describes as only a small portion of the fingerprint matches. The complaint argues Udio’s later licensing deals with UMG, Warner, Merlin, Kobalt, Believe and the NMPA underscore that copying without a license was unlawful in the first place. Sony remains the only major music company without a Udio licensing agreement.
Key developments
- 2026-06-29 — In the original case, the court denies Sony leave to add more than 30,000 recordings, holding there is no requirement the claims be brought in that lawsuit (ruling date as reported in the new complaint).
- 2026-07-20 — Sony and nine affiliated labels file the new S.D.N.Y. complaint asserting 30,117 recordings, adding DMCA circumvention claims over alleged YT-DLP stream-ripping from YouTube.
Why it matters for training data
The filing shows what training-data discovery plus audio fingerprinting produces: a second, larger suit built from the defendant’s own dataset. It also isolates the licensing question — Udio has licensed every other major and several large independents, so the remaining exposure is the catalog of the one rights holder that did not sign. For suppliers and buyers, partial licensing keeps the unlicensed remainder fully actionable, work by work.
Sources
- Music Business Worldwide — Sony Music sues Udio again, asserting over 30,000 recordings
- Variety — Sony Music files another lawsuit against Udio
- Billboard — Why Sony filed a new AI music copyright lawsuit against Udio
- Music Ally — Sony Music files new Udio lawsuit citing over 30k recordings
Deeper analysis
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