As I mentioned in previous posts, I have composed and played music (viola/violin/piano) throughout my life. However, once I played it, it was soon forgotten, either saved as a computer file or placed in a drawer somewhere as composed music. I became busy with life, raising a family, homeschooling, and after my husband passed away, returning to university and getting my MFA and Ph.D. Time was not on my side with my music. Other creative projects took center stage, such as writing novels and poetry, and performing in orchestras. This essay will address how the creativity of an independent musician like me can be harnessed to create polished music with the right tools, such as Suno.com, an online platform that helps musicians produce complete songs.
Suno AI is a generative AI platform that generates music and was formed in 2023. It is located in Cambridge, MA. However, in 2024, Suno was sued by several record labels for copyright infringement. According to Owen Parker, "The labels’ position was essentially this: our recordings are products. We own them. Training a commercial AI on those products without a license is theft, full stop. They leaned hard on the economic harm argument, pointing to projections showing that AI-generated music could cannibalize the streaming royalty market by displacing listens of licensed original content" (https://lawfold.com/suno-lawsuit/). This was a legitimate concern. However, Suno’s counterargument was, "training an AI model is no different from a human musician listening to thousands of songs and developing a style. They framed their work as a new kind of creative tool, not a copy machine. The “transformative use” argument was central to everything" (https://lawfold.com/suno-lawsuit/). This is an ongoing situation.
They settled out of court. One of the reasons that Suno used was the following: "Suno’s engineering team reportedly argued that training does not store or reproduce individual songs. Instead, it extracts statistical patterns. The model learns “music” as a set of relationships, not as a library of files" (https://lawfold.com/suno-lawsuit/). The future of Suno is uncertain, but it has made some changes since the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, I happened across the Suno platform in September 2026, oblivious to the lawsuit. I was pleasantly surprised at how it took my music and produced completely polished works, so I signed up for Suno Pro. Then there was a limit to the downloads. So I upgraded to Suno Premium. This allows me to create and download more music per month. This change in downloads happened from the Warner Music Group deal in November 2026. According to Golam Rabiul Alam, "Under the deal, Suno committed to launching new licensed AI models in 2026 that will deprecate current versions, and to requiring a paid account for downloading generated audio, with free-tier songs playable and shareable but not downloadable, and paid tiers subject to monthly download caps" (https://patentailab.com/riaa-vs-suno-lawsuit-update-2026/). This is where Suno stands at the moment.
I have had the great pleasure of producing my music using this platform. To me, it is a tool, just like iMovie allows me to make movies. It is important to me that I use only my original music and poems to create these works. I do not believe in asking Suno to create my music or lyrics for me, because then it is no longer my creation.
What I like about the Suno program is that it is easy to use. I capture my song either by recording it first on my Yamaha synthesizer, then capturing that recording on a Canon camera, uploading the file to my iMovie, and making an audio file from it. I also copy and paste my poem, and state the details, like which instruments I want and the type of singer, dynamics, rhythm, etc. Once I hit the Create button, the program plays two songs for me to listen to. If I do not like them, I can tweak the instructions and listen to the next two songs, and so on. As I download and share the songs with family and friends, they ask me if I wrote the songs or if I wrote the lyrics. I have had to explain my decision and tell them, "Yes, I have composed the song and written the lyrics. However, the song itself has instruments that I did not originally include (unless I wrote it on Noteflight, where several instruments were included)." Some of my songs had already been uploaded to Youtube several years ago using Noteflight, another platform where I could write my music and have it performed. I have included them in the narrative for my newer versions, just for comparison.
The reason I wrote this essay was to share how Suno's product is a suitable AI platform for creating music from original works like mine, so they don't sit in a drawer, unheard. The satisfaction of hearing them as complete songs is unparalleled. This is particularly true when I capture the essence of Greek folk music that I grew up listening to and dancing to all my life. I can share those songs with family and friends. As long as I enjoy listening to my music and can share it with family and friends, I will continue using Suno Premium.
Works Cited
Alam, Golam Rabiul. "RIAA vs Suno Lawsuit Update (2026): Is the Platform Shutting Down?"August 2026. (https://patentailab.com/riaa-vs-suno-lawsuit-update-2026/).A vs. Suno
Parker, Owen. "Suno Lawsuit 2026: Full Update, Ruling & Settlement." May 2026.
(https://lawfold.com/suno-lawsuit/)
