Michael Chua, who’s now leading Suno’s live experiences division. Photo Credit: Suno
Suno the live music specialist? About one year after acquiring Songkick, the AI upstart has tapped longtime Ticketmaster partnerships exec Michael Chua to lead the concert discovery platform.
Cambridge-headquartered Suno made the high-profile hire official today, noting that Chua will be based out of its New York office. Signing on as Songkick GM and VP of live experiences at Suno proper, Chua joins following an 11-year run at Live Nation’s Ticketmaster, where he was most recently global VP of business development and strategic partnerships.
(Separately, Chua also spent a couple years as a business development director with Live Nation itself, besides briefly advising Songkick back in 2013.)
In that role, the higher-up was in his own words responsible for “(b)uilding agentic ticketing” with the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta. Now, as part of Suno, the professional “will identify new ways to bring artists closer to their fans and help fans discover and connect with their favorite artists,” per the company.
Time will tell what these ambitious efforts entail for Suno in the long run. But integration appears to be the initial focus; the well-funded AI business is further looking to hire a senior software engineer who’ll “(l)ead the technical integration of Songkick into Suno” under Chua.
“We’re building the first creative entertainment platform, and live music is a pivotal part of that,” elaborated Paul Sinclair, Suno’s chief music officer. “A central focus of our live experiences team will be helping emerging artists, like those in our Spark program, an incubator program designed to help independent artists bring their music projects to life and more easily create live experiences.
“Michael has spent his career at the intersection of tech and live music and I’m excited to build this team with his support,” concluded Sinclair, who came aboard Suno in July 2025.
As for the bigger-picture significance of all this – meaning the incubator program, the live buildout, planned support for vinyl pressing, a licensing overhaul, and a team featuring a number of industry vets – that Suno is fending off sweeping criticism and multiple lawsuits isn’t a secret.
Thus far, the initiatives have delivered mixed results – referring to a few highly important partnerships but not the resolution of the non-Warner majors’ litigation or much-needed PR victories culminating in a public-sentiment shift.
Enter the focus of Suno’s latest expansion: education and non-profits.
According to a new job posting, the company is bringing on a social impact and education senior manager tasked with spearheading partnerships “that allow Suno to make a meaningful and lasting impact beyond the commercial platform.”
Among other things, the selected candidate will “(b)uild Suno’s university and education strategy from the ground up, targeting institutions, music programs, and ed-tech platforms,” according to the text, emphasizing for good measure that the team member must “move with the urgency and creativity that a fast-growing technology company demands.”
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