Elvis Presley rights holders and Eminem’s publisher sue AI music generator Suno

The 51-page complaint also invokes Tennessee’s 2024 Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which provides legal protections against the unauthorised use of individuals’ voices and likenesses through artificial intelligence. The rights holders argue that users can reference Presley by name to produce music resembling his vocal characteristics.

“The next Elvis won’t pick up a guitar,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in the filing, highlighting their concerns about the impact of AI-generated music on artists and the music industry. Separately, Eight Mile Style, the company that controls the publishing rights to hundreds of Eminem compositions, has brought its own copyright lawsuit against Suno.

The publisher alleges that the AI platform used Eminem's music and lyrics without permission to train its models and allows users to generate tracks that imitate his work. The complaint references some of the rapper's best-known songs, including Lose Yourself, Without Me and The Real Slim Shady.

It also includes examples of AI-generated music that allegedly reproduces elements of Eminem's lyrics and vocal style. Eminem himself is not named as a plaintiff in the case. Eight Mile Style is pursuing the legal action on behalf of the compositions it controls.

The lawsuits add to a growing series of legal disputes between music rights holders and AI companies over the use of copyrighted material in training datasets. Suno has previously faced claims from major record labels, including Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, over alleged unauthorised use of recordings.

The company has maintained in previous proceedings that its approach to training AI models is protected by fair use principles. Suno did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest lawsuits. The Presley rights holders and Eight Mile Style have also pursued separate legal action against other technology companies.

The Presley group recently sued Anthropic over the alleged use of 274 songs in training its Claude AI models, while Eight Mile Style has brought a copyright case against Meta. The latest cases underline the growing conflict between music publishers seeking to protect artists' work and AI companies developing tools that can generate music based on user prompts.

Neither lawsuit has yet established that Suno infringed the plaintiffs' rights, and the allegations will be addressed through the legal proceedings.