Elvis rights holders and Eminem’s publisher sue Suno, testing the ELVIS Act
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AI music generator Suno faces two more copyright lawsuits, including one from Elvis Presley’s music rights holders.
The Presley plaintiffs allege the Massachusetts-based AI company stole “Elvis’ likeness and copyrights.” A separate lawsuit filed on behalf of Eight Mile Style, the independent music publisher behind many of Eminem’s early hits, says Suno disregarded “the rights of Eight Mile Style” by making unlicensed copies of its songs.
Both federal lawsuits were filed in the Northern District of California on Friday and include several examples of AI songs that allegedly mimic Presley’s sound or replicate Eminem’s lyricism. The same legal team, led by attorney Richard Busch, represents both plaintiffs.
The Presley lawsuit, from a group of rights holders including Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing, is one of the first major tests of Tennessee’s Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security law, also known as the ELVIS Act. The law, which went into effect in 2024, protects artists from unauthorized commercial use of their voice, image and likeness, specifically targeting AI voice cloning. The 51-page complaint claims Suno violated the law by letting users generate tracks that imitate Presley’s voice. Damages for this case could exceed $50 million, according to the lawsuit.
“All of the humanity, history, despair, and triumph that constitutes Elvis’ identity was stolen and is stored on servers and harnessed by Suno to make massive amounts of money,” the Presley complaint said.
Record labels that sued AI music companies are now licensing them. But payouts are undisclosed, lawsuits continue and musicians ask who benefits.
“The next Elvis won’t pick up a guitar. Suno’s ravenous race to the bottom aims to make human creativity obsolete,” it added.
Eight Mile Style accuses the AI company of similar infringing activity. The Michigan-based music publisher controls 269 compositions, including Eminem hits like “Lose Yourself,” “The Real Slim Shady” and “Stan.” Eminem is not a party to the suit.
The complaint alleges that Suno built its “entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale heretofore unseen.” Eight Mile Style “never authorized Suno to copy, reproduce, or otherwise use” its copyrighted material, yet the company “trained its AI model” on Eight Mile’s music, according to the lawsuit. The publisher is seeking about $41 million in damages.
“Suno’s business model was admittedly and clearly: infringe now, make billions by being the first mover, and try to settle on the cheap later,” the complaint states. “Seeking forgiveness is clearly more profitable than permission, which they obviously could have done but consciously chose not to do.”
Suno denied the new allegations. A spokesperson for the company said it does not “allow prompts for specific artists’ names and songs” and works “with third-party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse.”
“Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone’s name or likeness, and we prohibit any unauthorized use of an artist’s work,” a spokesperson at Suno said in a statement.
The cases are the latest legal actions taken against Suno. Ongoing litigation includes lawsuits from independent music publishers Round Hill Music and Reservoir and major labels Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment — all anchored around copyright. Warner Music Group settled its case against Suno last year and signed a licensing deal with the company.
The partnerships that hold rights to 274 Elvis Presley songs, including “Don’t Be Cruel” and “All Shook Up,” claim AI giant Anthropic illegally used the songs to train its AI tool Claude. Anthropic denied the claim.
Suno has since inked deals with WMG, BMG and Believe, which helped create Suno’s first label-backed model, released in September. The new model prompted yet another lawsuit from UMG and Sony, alleging the latest model still infringes on their copyrighted works.
The AI company’s market value hasn’t been harmed by its legal troubles, as it raised $400 million during a funding round in June and is valued at $5.4 billion.
Several of Presley’s rights holders and Eight Mile Style also recently sued other artificial intelligence giants.
Authentic Brands Group and other Presley publishers filed a federal lawsuit against Anthropic last month, claiming it used his songs without permission to train its online agent Claude. The San Francisco-based AI company disputes the allegations.
Eight Mile Style sued Meta in May 2025, claiming it infringed on its Eminem copyrights across its Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram libraries. A federal judge in Michigan recently ruled the case could proceed to discovery.
