The Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse colonnade. Photo Credit: NYU FC
Three months later, the American Federation of Musicians’ high-stakes AI compensation lawsuit is moving full steam ahead – albeit with Warner Records, not Warner Music Group Corp., named as a defendant.
The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) just recently made a name-related change official in a voluntary dismissal notice. According to this filing, the union has shelved the action “without prejudice, strictly and only as to Defendant WARNER MUSIC GROUP CORP.”
One could be forgiven for believing that the disclosure pertains to a partial resolution in the case, which centers on Warner Music’s and Universal Music’s alleged failure to cut AFM musicians in on due AI licensing revenue.
As many know, the defendants remain adamant that the relevant labor contract’s new use section doesn’t cover artificial intelligence; the AFM is, of course, of the opposite view.
However, all the litigants have directly or indirectly acknowledged ongoing negotiations concerning a fresh labor pact; gen AI is rather unsurprisingly a key focus in the discussions.
At the intersection of these points – plus the majors’ tall AI revenue expectations as well as the other licensing deals that are presumably on the horizon – a lawsuit-ending resolution doesn’t seem impossible here.
But if the stage is being set for a settlement, it’s not quite showtime. As we previously reported, Warner Music Group (WMG) and Universal Music promptly pushed back against the AFM’s central claims.
And when rattling off its own arguments, WMG went ahead and took aim at the suit on a technical level; the aforesaid Warner Music Group Corp. itself didn’t ink the AFM labor agreement, didn’t sue Udio or Suno, and therefore didn’t license either AI platform.
“To the extent AFM seeks to assert a breach of contract, it is not against Warner Music Group Corp. That is alone enough to dismiss the complaint as to Warner,” the major drove home.
Of course, the overarching Warner Music does, in fact, have Suno and Udio deals in place; see the company’s newest earnings transcript, complete with mentions of the above-noted AI revenue expectations, for proof.
Consequently, it didn’t come as a shock when the AFM in a late-July amended complaint swapped Warner Music Group for Warner Records.
One month later, then, the American Federation of Musicians has made the dismissal official against Warner Music Group, not Warner Records (and Atlantic).
Counsel for the AFM confirmed to Digital Music News that the case itself is very much alive, and with that, it’ll be worth continuing to closely track the courtroom confrontation moving forward.
Assuming the clash has time to unfold, the AFM will likely look to ascertain precisely how many training-incorporated recordings contain contributions from its members. In this way, we could learn more about the platforms’ closely guarded (but probably massive) “training numbers.”