Suno AI is under fire, again. This time over its new lyric generation tool, ReMi. According to a recent investigation by Complete Music Update, the tool reproduces lyrics from well-known songs nearly word for word, despite the company’s claims that such output is technically impossible. The findings raise new questions about how generative music tools are being developed and marketed and whether they’re crossing legal and ethical lines in the process.
CMU researchers say they tested ReMi with prompts that described the tone, style, and era of a particular song. For example, one prompt asked for a 1980s Australian pop song with male vocals, touching on themes of Indigenous rights and resembling the style of Midnight Oil. The tool responded with what CMU describes as a near-verbatim copy of the band’s 1987 hit Beds Are Burning.
While the music generated by Suno's system didn’t resemble the original composition, the lyrics did. Phrases like “blood wood,” “Holden wrecks,” and “Four wheels scare the cockatoos, from Kintore East to Yuendumu” appeared intact which is a level of textual overlap CMU believes goes well beyond coincidence. ReMi can reportedly generate copies of entire lyrical works from well-known songs including “Take It Easy” by Eagles, “Beds Are Burning” by Midnight Oil, “Blind In Texas” by W.A.S.P., “Comedown” by Bush, “Hold On Loosely” by .38 Special and “American Pie” by Don MacLean.
Suno has previously stated that ReMi contains safeguards designed to prevent the model from outputting copyrighted content. Those assurances now appear to be under scrutiny.
The UK’s Ivors Academy, which represents songwriters and composers, didn’t mince words in its reaction. CEO Roberto Neri called the situation the “latest example of unethical AI firms,” accusing companies like Suno of “stealing the work, art and livelihoods of lyricists, songwriters and composers.”
The backlash has also prompted action in Germany, where the rights organization GEMA has filed a lawsuit against Suno. The group argues that Suno makes it easy for users to generate music and lyrics they have no legal right to use, and that generative models are deliberately sidestepping copyright law to train on protected works without proper licensing.
So far, Suno has not responded to the European legal complaints. In a previous dispute with the RIAA, CEO Mikey Shulman dismissed industry pushback as misguided, claiming the lawsuits get the facts and the law wrong. He also argued that Suno’s tools are meant to restore the enjoyment of music creation, which he believes has become “less enjoyable.”
While some critics have questioned CMU’s methodology suggesting that their prompts may have been too specific and effectively encouraged the model to mimic particular songs, the problem seems to be isolated to the ReMi model. According to one CMU tester, when they used Suno’s standard lyric generation tool instead, the outputs bore no resemblance to any existing tracks.
That detail has also been echoed by Reddit users. On a subreddit dedicated to Suno, multiple creators shared screenshots of ReMi outputs containing lyrics they recognized, advising others to double-check everything before publishing AI-generated work.
Whether Suno’s defenses will hold up in court or in the eyes of the public remains to be seen. For now, the company faces mounting criticism from both the creative community and copyright watchdogs who argue that the tech industry is taking too many liberties with other people’s work.
