One of the best ways to follow Suno’s changing attitudes towards the music industry is through snapshots of its CEO Mikey Shulman’s rhetoric when talking about rightsholders.
When the three major labels sued Suno in 2024, his response statement attacked “the corporate record labels that filed this lawsuit”, adding that “instead of entertaining a good faith discussion, they’ve reverted to their old lawyer-led playbook”.
Fast forward to January 2025, when Shulman was talking about “building a bigger, brighter future – hopefully with the incumbents in the industry”, and then November 2025, celebrating Suno’s WMG deal with “Together, we can enhance how music is made, consumed, experienced and shared”.
Now read Suno’s latest blog post, attributed to Shulman, announcing v5.5 of its model and a batch of new features. “We’re opening a new chapter in music creation, in partnership with artists and the music business,” he wrote.
“The capabilities we’re putting in place today — voice fidelity, personalized sound, custom models — lay the foundation for the next generation of music models we’re launching with the music industry later this year.”
The journey from “corporate record labels” as foes to key partners isn’t quite done yet – Suno has yet to settle and sign deals with UMG and Sony Music, amid what it has presented as a philosophical disagreement with the former about ‘walled gardens’ versus ‘open studios’.
Still, the fact that Suno v5.5 was unveiled with such prominent references to it setting up the future licensed models is telling, as is the fact that thrust of its key features is to continue the narrative that “the best music starts with a human”.
‘Voices’ is a big plank in that strategy: people can now record themselves singing or rapping and use that to make music on Suno – complete with a “verification process” matching those vocals with their speaking voice to ensure it really is them.
“And your Voices on Suno are private — only you can use them to create new songs. In the future, we plan to add voice sharing, but rooted in the principle that you stay in control of what you create,” wrote Shulman.
Another new feature is ‘Custom Models’ where musicians and producers can upload tracks from their original catalogues and use those to “build a personalized version of the model that knows your style”.
For musicians who already use Suno, these are exciting, innovative features, as was the quiet launch of its experimental MILO-1080 step sequencer and synth engine recently.
It’s the sign of a platform (and a wider direction of travel for AI-music firms more widely) evolving to support human artistry rather than just AI slop. These are encouraging developments, but they must be accompanied by continued progress in settling lawsuits, striking fair deals – fair for musicians, not just their rightsholders – and carefully thought-through safeguards.
“We believe the best version of Suno is one that works for anyone who makes music,” wrote Shulman in the blog post.
Achieving that goal requires understanding and anticipating this technology’s current and potential impacts on musicians – harms as well as opportunities. And then doing the right things, not just the ‘necessary to settle lawsuits’ things.
Hiring in music people like Paul Sinclair and Jeremy Sirota should help set that moral compass for the journey ahead, but Suno’s actions as well as words over the coming months will be watched closely for proof of the process.
