- Music rights company Reservoir Media filed two separate lawsuits on Oct. 21 against Suno and Anthropic, seeking a combined $338 million over alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted songs.
- Reservoir accuses Suno of scraping 1,050 copyrighted songs, including Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach.”
- A separate suit accuses Anthropic of using copyrighted lyrics from 853 songs to train its Claude models, including Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life.”
- An Anthropic representative told Billboard the company disagrees with the allegations and intends to defend the case “vigorously.”
What Happened
Reservoir Media Management filed two separate lawsuits on Oct. 21, 2026, accusing Suno and Anthropic of unlawfully using copyrighted songs and lyrics to train their AI systems, seeking a combined $338 million, CNET reported (Oct 27, 2026).
Why It Matters
The suits follow the Elvis Presley estate’s separate $41 million copyright suit against Anthropic, adding to a widening pattern of music-rights litigation against AI companies training on copyrighted material.
Technical Details
Reservoir alleges Suno scraped 1,050 copyrighted songs, including Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach.” The separate suit against Anthropic alleges the use of copyrighted lyrics from 853 songs, including Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” and Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life,” to train its Claude model family.
Who’s Affected
The suits directly affect Suno, a text-to-song generation platform, and Anthropic’s Claude training pipeline. Songwriters and rights holders represented by Reservoir stand to gain damages or licensing leverage if the cases succeed.
What’s Next
An Anthropic representative told Billboard the company disagrees with the allegations and intends to defend the case “vigorously.” Suno has not issued a public statement on the suit against it.
