Photo Credit: Jakub Żerdzicki
WMG plows ahead with more AI licensing deals, counting its money while UMG and Sony continue to duke it out in court with AI companies like Suno and Udio.
While Universal and Sony continue battling it out with AI companies in the court system, Warner is breaking new ground with AI licensing deals like that with Suno (just don’t ask to see that deal…)
WMG recently revealed its quarterly earnings, which went out early following a late-Friday executive shakeup. Now, the company is about to see a serious windfall after CEO Robert Kyncl unveiled some groundbreaking licensing deals with major AI companies.
“We’ve developed new monetization frameworks like our partnerships with Suno, Stability AI, KLAY, and Udio, (and) expect our licensing deals to contribute materially to our subscription streaming revenue growth starting in fiscal 2027,” said Kyncl during the company’s earnings call.
Kyncl also confirmed that Warner’s plan with Suno “remains exactly as it was, which is for them to transition to a license model later this year.” He added that “everything’s on schedule, which is great.”
Acting CFO Lou Dickler doubled down on that front: “Finally, we’ve got new licensing deals with AI companies, most notably Suno, and we expect that to provide nice contributions starting next fiscal year. Through all these areas, really, we’re definitely excited about the opportunity ahead, and we remain confident that we can continue to deliver growth consistent with the targets we’ve outlined.”
“The success of our strategy is evidenced by the marked acceleration in our subscription streaming growth, which expect to be resilient for the years to come,” Kyncl added. “AI creates a new incremental vector to increase the value of music—we’ve taken a leadership role to capitalize on the new opportunities it is unlocking.”
Since Warner’s deal (and settlement) with Suno, things have remained relatively quiet on that front. The details of their agreement remain hush-hush, and that’s never been more true since a judge denied Sony and UMG’s request to obtain a copy of the contract.
Suno has claimed that turning over the contract to be scrutinized by the other majors would “compromise settlement dynamics and threaten to chill future settlements by similarly situated parties.”
Further, if the labels had any intention of citing Suno and Warner’s settlement as “evidence that a market for licensing sound recordings as training data exists,” then just the fact that the deal has happened should prove that it does, Suno argued.
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