Suno is taking another step toward establishing itself within the music industry, announcing a new global partnership with BMG that will cover the company's recorded music and publishing catalogs.

The agreement includes an opt-in system for BMG's artists and songwriters, with the music company promising that participants will have their rights protected and receive compensation for their work. The deal also resolves previous uses of BMG recordings and compositions by Suno.

BMG becomes the first major rightsholder to strike a licensing agreement with Suno since Warner Music Group announced its own alliance with the AI music platform nine months ago. Meanwhile, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Group remain locked in a legal battle with Suno, accusing the company of widespread copyright infringement in the training of its AI models.

Like Warner, BMG will also participate in developing Suno's next generation of AI models, which the company says are now being created in partnership with the music industry.

“The future of music will be more participatory,” said Suno co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman. “Building that future responsibly means working directly with the people who make music and the companies that represent them.”

BMG executive Celine Joshua emphasized that artist choice and compensation will be central to the partnership, saying the agreement provides “strong protections, clear economics, and new creative possibilities” for artists and fans.

The deal comes amid a broader push by Suno to address concerns surrounding AI-generated music. Earlier this week, the company announced plans to limit the number of songs subscribers can download from the platform, arguing that the restrictions will make it more difficult for bad actors to mass-export AI-generated music to streaming services.

Suno has also committed to implementing audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology designed to make AI-generated tracks easier to identify and help distribution platforms combat fraud and misuse. The changes could help the company comply with transparency requirements under the EU AI Act.

The partnership arrives at a complicated time for Suno. In June, the company raised more than $400 million at a $5.4 billion valuation and says that more than 100 million people have used its platform. But last month, Suno lost a legal battle against German collection society GEMA, with a Munich court ruling that the company was not entitled to use music represented by GEMA and ordering it to disclose information about its revenue and pay damages. Suno has stated that it is considering an appeal.

BMG currently represents more than 3 million songs and recordings, with a catalog that includes works from artists such as will.i.am, Tina Turner, Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll and Paul Simon.

That catalog is poised to grow significantly. BMG is in the process of completing a multibillion-dollar merger with Concord, which has already received regulatory approval in Germany and the US and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year. Concord has invested more than $3 billion since 2020 across publishing, recorded music, theatrical rights and distribution, representing more than 125,000 artists and songwriters.

The BMG-Suno deal marks another notable shift in the music industry's relationship with AI: while labels continue to fight AI companies in court, other rightsholders are increasingly looking to licensing agreements as a way to participate in, and profit from, the technology's rapidly developing future.