Sony sues Udio over copyright infringement of 30,000 songs
Sony filed a new lawsuit against AI music generator Udio on July 20, 2026, alleging copyright infringement of over 30,000 songs, after a judge rejected its attempt to amend an earlier lawsuit naming 333 works. The new case increases Sony's potential damages claim from $50 million to $4.5 billion. Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group had previously settled with Udio.
What happened
Sony filed a new lawsuit against Udio on July 20, 2026, in a New York court, alleging copyright infringement of over 30,000 of its songs, expanding from an earlier lawsuit that named 333 works.
Sony states it identified the additional songs using audio fingerprinting after gaining access to Udio's training data through discovery, and claims Udio 'copied and ingested' these recordings into its generative AI models from sources including YouTube.
A federal judge had rejected Sony's motion to amend the original lawsuit, finding that expanding the dataset would 'substantially prejudice defendants and unduly delay the resolution,' but acknowledged Sony had the right to file a separate action.
Reported impact
The new lawsuit increases Udio's potential damages exposure from $50 million to $4.5 billion, with Sony seeking up to $150,000 per work infringed.
Index analysis
Sony claims the 30,000 songs represent 'only a small portion' of the works that Udio infringed.
Udio has maintained its training procedures, and the company previously argued that expanding the original dataset two years into litigation would 'indefinitely derail' the case.
Governance controls
Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group both exited similar litigation against Udio in fall 2025 after reaching licensing deals requiring Udio to build a new model from pre-cleared training data and contain AI-generated music in a 'walled garden' on the platform.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.