Music Publishers Sue Anthropic Over AI Training on Song Lyrics
Music publishers Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO filed a motion in California federal court asking a judge to rule that Anthropic infringed their copyrights by using millions of song lyrics to train its Claude AI chatbot without permission. The publishers argue the AI-generated lyrics compete with and dilute the market for their original works and do not qualify as fair use.
What happened
Music publishers Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO filed a motion on March 24, 2026, in US District Court in San Jose asking a judge to rule that Anthropic infringed their copyrights by copying millions of song lyrics to train its Claude AI chatbot.
The publishers allege the lawsuit was initiated in 2023 and claims Anthropic infringed copyrights in lyrics from at least 500 songs by musicians including Beyonce, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys.
Reported impact
The publishers argue that Claude's AI-generated lyrics are derivatives that compete with and dilute the market for their original works and that the chatbot unlawfully reproduces their lyrics on demand without permission.
Index analysis
The publishers requested the court rule before trial that Anthropic infringed their copyrights and reject Anthropic's fair use defense, arguing that copying millions of copyrighted works to train AI models does not constitute fair use under US copyright law.
Governance controls
Anthropic has denied the allegations but has not yet argued for fair use in the music publishers' case.
This lawsuit is one of dozens of disputes between copyright owners and tech companies over AI training, and follows Anthropic's 2025 settlement with authors for $1.5 billion.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.