Suno has hired its first Chief Financial Officer, and she is arriving with a heartfelt belief that music is fundamental to being human at a company whose AI makes it for you in seconds with nothing but a few keystrokes.Cherry Miao is joining the controversial AI music company after overseeing revenue operations at Hightouch, an AI-powered data and marketing platform for which she also served as an angel investor.
That company was valued at $2.75 billion after a Series D funding round of $150 million in April, per CFO.com.Miao announced her new role in a humblebrag LinkedIn post this week, thanking Suno’s founding team and Silicon Valley investors for their “wisdom” throughout the hiring process while describing music as one of the things that “makes humans human.” Considering her new employer is the most prominent company using AI to automate the human part, the irony may be the most authentic output Suno has produced so far.
“Music is one of the things that makes humans human, and I’m deeply committed to the mission of using technology to bring more people the joy of creative expression,” Miao wrote.“On an internet that pushes us to mindlessly consume, more than 100 million people have used Suno to make something instead.” Suno’s users can type prompts and receive AI-generated songs in seconds, essentially reducing one of humanity’s oldest forms of expression into a fill-in-the-blank exercise.
The beleaguered company, which increased its valuation to $5.4 billion after raising more than $400 million in June, continues to fight over a dozen copyright lawsuits over its training practices, including an explosive complaint filed by the firm behind the largest litigation settlement in history.Perhaps the most laughable part of Miao’s announcement is the “mindlessly consuming” remark.
She insinuates that Suno wants to rescue the internet from passive consumption by encouraging people to create, while those same creators fl...