Song Tested

Weekly wrap-up

This Week in AI Music: Takedowns, Fraud Time, and Suno Heads to the Venue

Oct 11, 2026 · Oct 5 to Oct 11, 2026 · Edited by Nathan Crowe, our editor

A week that was mostly about enforcement. Six stories, plus the one review we shipped.

This week's song: "Fraud Time," made with Suno v6 from this wrap-up

Open on Suno

Published on Song Tested this week

Suno v6 review (Oct 6). Nathan Crowe, our editor, has made 1,000+ AI tracks. He scored 16 v6 takes blind and gave it 4.56 out of 5. Bluegrass over drum and bass worked. A key change on request still didn't. Read our Suno v6 review.

Sony has asked for 260,000 AI deepfakes to come down

By the end of September, Sony Music had asked platforms to remove more than 260,000 AI-generated tracks impersonating its artists, including Harry Styles, Adele, and Michael Jackson. That's almost double the 135,000 it reported at the end of March, per the Financial Times figure reported Oct 5 (via Music Business Worldwide).

Italy opens an investigation into Suno's terms

On Oct 6, Italy's competition authority (AGCM) said Suno's terms of service "may be unfair" under its Consumer Code. Its concerns: price changes, account terminations, US-based individual arbitration, and a content license that requires users to waive their moral rights. The current terms took effect Sept 3. The AGCM says a public consultation will open in the coming weeks (Music Business Worldwide). If you use Suno, those are the terms you agreed to as well.

18 months for the AI song bot scheme

On Oct 6, a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Michael Smith of North Carolina to 18 months in prison and ordered him to forfeit $8,091,843.64. Prosecutors say he used thousands of fake accounts from 2017 to 2024 to stream hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs billions of times. It's the first federal criminal case over music streaming fraud (Music Business Worldwide; Pitchfork).

A day later, on Oct 7, the US Copyright Office opened a public inquiry into music streaming fraud, including how it ties to AI-generated music. Its questions cover distributor checks, royalty clawbacks, a shared fraud database, and labeling content that isn't eligible for royalties. Written comments are due Nov 23 and replies Dec 21 (Music Business Worldwide).

Suno hires a Ticketmaster exec to run live

Suno named Ticketmaster's Michael Chua vice president and general manager of Suno Live Experiences. He'll run its live music operations, including Songkick, the concert discovery platform Suno got from Warner Music Group in the November 2025 settlement (Music Business Worldwide; Digital Music News). An AI song generator now has a concert team.

UMG's DistroKid suit is still just allegations

An Oct 8 legal explainer recapped Universal's Sept 15 Delaware lawsuit, which accuses DistroKid of running an "AI-slop pipeline" and distributing unlicensed copies of UMG recordings. DistroKid disputes the claims, and no court has ruled on the merits (Kronenberger Rosenfeld). If you distribute AI-assisted music through DistroKid, this case is worth following.

Coming this week

Opinions are Nathan's.