Suno wants you to know it loves independent artists.The AI music company loves them so much, in fact, that it’s launching ‘Spark,’ a new program offering grants and mentorship to musicians while a courtroom down the hall hashes out whether it built its entire business by helping itself to their music first.
Ad 0:00 Click for sound 0:00 / 0:00 The blog post announcing ‘Spark’ is full of phrases like “they need more than tools,” which shouldn’t come as a surprise from a company founded by someone who once claimed that most people find the music creation process “not really enjoyable.” Then there’s the fine print, which includes an astonishing section titled “Good Vibes Only.” First unearthed by our friends at Stereogum, the clause explicitly forbids participants from making “statements or representations, either directly or indirectly, whether orally or in writing, that disparage Spark” under penalty of termination for material breach.To be fair, “don’t trash-talk the people who just gave you a grant” is a defensible stance.
Plenty of fellowships and residencies ask for goodwill in exchange for funding.But there’s a difference between asking for goodwill and muzzling, especially when the company in question has spent nearly two years being accused of digesting the life’s work of the very artists it now wants to “support.” It’s like a vampire opening a blood bank and asking donors to sign an NDA about the fang marks.
The company’s ‘Spark’ program might genuinely help some musicians pay rent and finish some sort of Frankensteinian album.It just also happens to ask them, in writing, not to say anything mean about the company that’s currently being sued by the law firm behind the largest litigation settlement in history.
The timing could easily be satire.Artists are currently sounding off on Suno en masse after The Atlantic released its expl...