Suno Adds Watermarks and Download Limits to Curb Music Fraud

Suno, the AI music generator that made it trivial to spin up a full song from a text prompt, is adding controls meant to stop its own tool from flooding streaming services with fraudulent tracks. The company said on Thursday it will introduce audio watermarking and fingerprinting so platforms can identify songs made with Suno, along with new limits on how many tracks a user can download.

The target is a specific scam. As Engadget reported, fraudsters generate hundreds or thousands of AI songs, upload them to services like Spotify, then use bot accounts to play the tracks on repeat and collect royalties. Watermarking makes those songs traceable, and download limits make them harder to mass-distribute in the first place.

Pressure from courts and labels

The changes did not come out of nowhere. Suno is fighting copyright lawsuits from major record labels, and the scale of the abuse has become hard to ignore. In March, a man was convicted after uploading hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and fraudulently collecting about 8 million dollars in royalties, according to The Next Web. Separately, Warner Music Group has reached a settlement with Suno, agreeing to a deal for licensed AI music rather than a courtroom fight.

Suno also published a set of principles for how it says AI music should work, covering artist consent and platform responsibility. The company says the new limits will not affect most of its users and are aimed at large-scale abuse rather than individual musicians.

The unanswered questions

What Suno has not said is where the lines fall. It has not published the download caps, which subscription tiers they apply to, or when they take effect. Watermarking only helps if streaming platforms actually check for it, and the company has not detailed how that cooperation will work. The announcement sets a direction. Whether it dents the fraud depends on details that are still missing.