Photo Credit: Aerps
One month after partnering with Warner Music Group (WMG), Suno is shedding light on the direction of its planned changes for 2026 – including a fresh emphasis on subscriber-exclusive monetization and an adjusted output-ownership policy.
When the AI music generator and Warner Music announced their lawsuit-ending agreement in late November, they didn’t disclose an abundance of concrete information. But they did indicate that Suno would launch “more advanced and licensed models” and implement “monthly download caps,” among other things.
Now, a week and change out from the new year, the Suno website’s updated Rights & Ownership section is painting a more detailed picture of what’s to come. At the top level, the retooled approach largely aligns with last month’s overview, stressing the “commercial use license” associated with paid accounts.
“Songs made on the free plan (not subscribed) are only available for non-commercial use and cannot be monetized,” Suno’s site reads. “These do not include the commercial use license, and starting a subscription after you made a great song will not give you a retroactive license for the song.”
(Technically, retroactive rights could be on the table: “We may offer retroactive rights in certain cases, but this is not guaranteed and applies only to specific songs.” Said “certain cases” would presumably involve cutting Suno and, depending on the output’s origins, Warner Music, in on another AI-generated smash hit.)
Though this text is essentially the same as before, the new emboldening is telling with regard to Suno’s and Warner Music’s objectives. Also unchanged (at least for the time being): the platform’s credits system for paid-account music generations and the monetization particulars thereof.
“Songs made while subscribed are granted commercial use rights, in addition to your right to use them for personal, non-commercial purposes,” the relevant paragraph reads. “Commercial use rights allow you to monetize the songs however you wish, without Suno claiming a stake in the earnings.”
“However you wish” includes but isn’t limited to sync placements, permanent downloads, and on-demand streaming.
This leads to the most noteworthy of Suno’s outlined changes: The actual ownership status of, not just the monetization rights to, user generations.
Last month, Suno was rather clear about the important policy. “If you make songs while subscribed to the Pro or Premier plan, you own the songs,” the since-altered verbiage, captured by the Wayback Machine, spelled out in November. “Further, you are granted a commercial use license to monetize those songs.”
The same webpage has modified its title in the interim – “Do I have the copyrights to songs I made?” to “Do I own the copyrights to songs I made?” at present – and embraced a noticeably different take on output ownership.
“You may be granted commercial use rights, which allow you to reproduce (copy) the song(s) to sell, distribute, etc,” the retooled resource reads. “Even with granted commercial use rights, you generally are not considered the owner of the songs, since the output was generated by Suno.”
“The answer [as to whether Suno owns outputs] is a bit complicated, but generally, yes. Suno is ultimately responsible for the output itself, though you help guide it,” another page explains.
That’s an interesting pivot and could prove significant on multiple fronts in 2026. A couple adjacent areas will also be worth tracking next year: the other majors’ ongoing litigation against the platform and where Warner Music’s ADA (the distributor, some will recall, behind select “original songs” from AI generator Boomy) fits in.
