AI-music firm Udio’s deal with UMG included the announcement that with immediate effect users would be unable to download the tracks they’ve made on its existing service. What do those users think of that? There are certainly plenty of cross people on the official Udio subreddit.
“Paying Udio Pro user here. I’ve spent 10+ hours every day for 15+ months (~4,500–5,000 hours) building a catalog: 300+ songs over 2 min. long, 21 finished tracks, and hundreds of shorter works — all created BEFORE the download freeze,” wrote one user whose post has been gaining momentum. “I’m not asking for credits or refunds. I’m asking for a time-limited FULL export window (or a one-time bulk export) for ALL legacy projects.”
Another popular post described the deal as “a shame, and honestly, a betrayal… I’ve spent hundreds of $$$ and countless hours building tracks with this tool. No one warned us that one day, we wouldn’t even be able to access our own music. You can’t just pull the plug and call that a “transition.” That’s not a transition, it’s a betrayal of your user base.”
While the music industry’s sympathy for these complaints will be extremely limited, Udio will need to monitor them carefully to understand whether it’s a few vocal users or a wider revolt.
