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Rights holders of Elvis Presley's music and Eight Mile Style, the publisher of many Eminem recordings, have filed separate lawsuits against AI music company Suno, according to reports published on November 8. The suits claim Suno's service generates music and lyrics that imitate the two artists. The Presley case invokes Tennessee's ELVIS Act, which targets AI cloning of a singer's voice.
Key facts
- Plaintiffs: a group that owns rights to Presley's music, and Eight Mile Style, which Engadget says owns hundreds of Eminem recordings. Engadget credits Variety with first reporting the filings.
- The Presley lawyers allege a violation of Tennessee's Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, per The Verge.
- Both complaints include examples of Suno-generated songs that allegedly sound like Presley or echo Eminem's lyrics, according to Engadget.
- Suno's defense: it bars prompts naming specific artists and songs, and uses third-party providers to screen uploaded audio and lyrics.
What the plaintiffs argue
The complaints describe Suno as encoding artists' identities and work for profit. The Verge quotes the Presley filing as saying Suno has "mechanically encoded itself with artists' identities" to generate cash. Both outlets quote the same line from the filings: Suno is accused of replicating without a license, in seconds, what takes artists years to learn.
The two outlets frame the legal basis differently. Engadget describes the suits as copyright infringement claims. The Verge notes that the Presley case rests on the ELVIS Act's voice-cloning provisions, and that it resembles a September suit by Jason Isbell and others, which alleged imitation but did not directly claim copyright infringement.
Suno's response
Suno spokesperson Cat McCormack told The Verge that the company exists to help people create new, original music and prohibits unauthorized use of an artist's work. She said Suno does not allow prompts for specific artists' names and songs, and that it continues to strengthen its guardrails. The statement does not address the specific examples cited in the complaints.
Why it matters
Suno now faces a widening set of claims on different legal footing. Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group filed a joint suit earlier this year, which Engadget says alleges infringement continues with Suno's v6 models. The Verge also lists Reservoir Media among the plaintiffs.
The ELVIS Act route is notable because it focuses on voice and likeness rather than training data or copied recordings. If courts accept it, it could give artists a state-law path against AI services even where copyright claims are harder to prove.
The outcome is not uniform across the industry. Engadget reports that Warner Music Group dropped its suit last year and entered a licensing deal with Suno instead.
What to watch
- Whether Suno answers the complaints with a motion to dismiss, and how it addresses the ELVIS Act claims.
- Whether more labels follow Warner toward licensing agreements.
- The Presley rights group's parallel action: Engadget says it recently sued Anthropic, seeking $41 million in damages over alleged training on the musician's works.
