The backlash against AI music has a new flashpoint, and this time the receipts are searchable.Ad 0:00 Click for sound 0:00 / 0:00 Through its AI Watchdog project, The Atlantic recently published a searchable database that allows any artist to check whether their work was swept into the training models behind AI music generators like Suno and Udio.
Within hours, producers across the electronic music community were typing in their own names and watching their catalogs come back.Drawn from four datasets, the trove maps more than 21 million copyrighted recordings currently circulating among AI developers.
Many were distributed through links that reportedly let developers pull music while bypassing the paywalls and mechanisms that normally compensate artists.Training data has long been a closely guarded secret, but for the first time, musicians can now see their own songs inside the machine.
A range of influential dance music producers, including SG Lewis, tyDi and Varien, posted tallies showing that more than 100 of their own songs had been pulled into the datasets from their respective catalogues.Prolific hip-hop producer Kenny Beats, who previously produced electronic dance music and toured as LOUDPVCK, specifically set his sights on Suno in a post on X, calling the platform’s proprietors “true losers.” “I can’t imagine going into work daily knowing you are stealing from countless struggling musicians.” he wrote.
“I can’t imagine being proud to earn a paycheck obliterating the work and dreams of artists.Get fucked, every single one of you.” On Monday, a broad coalition of artists, songwriters and managers published an open letter pressing labels and publishers over their AI licensing deals.
The letter demands no default opt-ins, no forced AI clauses and no use of an artist’s work or likeness without consent as well as fair pay and transparency, arguing that “innovatio...