# Reservoir sues Suno and Anthropic over alleged copyrighted music use in AI training

Digest AI · Policy & Regulation · published 2026-10-27T01:22:00Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/reservoir-sues-suno-and-anthropic-over-alleged-copyrighted-music-use-i-e809e4

## Summary

Reservoir Media Management filed two lawsuits on October 21 against Suno and Anthropic, seeking a combined $338 million in damages. The company alleges Suno scraped 1,050 copyrighted songs—including works by Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, and Madonna—to train its AI song generator. Anthropic is accused of using lyrics from 853 songs, including Mitchell’s *Big Yellow Taxi* and Billy Strayhorn’s *Lush Life*, to train its Claude AI models.

Both lawsuits claim the companies violated copyright by circumventing paywalls and stripping song credits. Reservoir’s CEO, Golnar Khosrowshahi, warned that unchecked AI exploitation of creative work threatens the industry. This follows a $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic reached over allegations of training on pirated books and a separate lawsuit over 274 Elvis Presley songs. Suno also faces multiple copyright cases, including one from Sony and Universal Music Group. The AI music industry faces growing scrutiny as lawsuits pile up, with over 145 copyright cases tracked by the AI Lawsuit Tracker.

## Key points

- Reservoir sues Suno for $186.4M over scraping 1,050 copyrighted songs, including Madonna and Cash works
- Anthropic faces $151.4M lawsuit for allegedly training Claude on lyrics from 853 songs, per Reservoir
- Both companies deny allegations, but Suno admitted scraping open-internet music in a prior court filing

## Why it matters

Copyright lawsuits against AI labs signal rising legal risks for training data sources. If courts rule against these firms, it could force AI companies to pay for licensed datasets or redesign training methods, raising costs for developers and limiting creative AI tools.

## Sources

1. [Anthropic, Suno Sued for Unlawfully Using Songs by Madonna, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell](https://cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/anthropic-suno-sued-using-songs-madonna-johnny-cash-joni-mitchell) (cnet.com, 2026-10-27)

Part of the developing story: [AI Music Copyright Lawsuits Escalate](https://digestai.news/thread/reservoir-sues-suno-and-anthropic-over-alleged-copyrighted-music-use-in-ai) (3 stories)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Reservoir sues Suno and Anthropic over alleged copyrighted music use in AI training", 27 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/reservoir-sues-suno-and-anthropic-over-alleged-copyrighted-music-use-i-e809e4

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