Originally Posted by Bill Draper
Hypothetical.
I pay suno $10/month.

I get suno to write the lyric, and the music, with some minimal prompts….heart break, break up, r&b, uptempo, horns, big bass and drums.

Suno spits out song.

I edit the lyric to my liking. I edit the music to my performance abilities and liking.

I register the lyric with ascap and list suno with a 65% share of royalty. I take 35% because I’m commercializing the song….getting it out there.

I perform the song at licensed venues with good audience reception.

For argument sake, let’s say the song is exactly like one you wrote, and you inform me of that.

I say whoops….and hand over my 35% share to you,and you let suno know, and they hand over their 65%……

Suno gets no royaties ever. ZERO. Also, contrary to what I thought and many others thought, Suno has stated in writing to me they do not claim any ownership of the masters. I thought they did. But at this point it doesn't matter anymore (more about that in a moment). So the Songwriter royalties are only like 10% of the digital royalities. Most of it (as best I can determine, but I am happy to be corrected because no litigation has happened to resolve any of this permanently) 90% goes to whoever owns the masters. If I am the owner, I get that money no matter who wrote the song. If I also wrote the song, both melody and lyrics (not to mention it is based on my production, same tempo, same instruments plus additional production decisions by me in the process) then I should get 100%. The problem is the royalties still blow. A Billion streams = 144K and change. It is ridiculous. If you auto generate music and lyrics, your tweaks are not going to get you 35% of the full royalities. It would get you 35% of the songwriter portion of the royalty. The real money goes to the owner of the masters. I thought they took ownership in 2026, but they are claiming over and over they are not. Likely the courts will decide, but it is clear to me, I pay a fee to Suno for the content I create. That is ownership of the product. Songwriter royalties are not part of that. You should own the master of auto generated and completly human created music and lyrics just the same. We will have to wait for lawsuits to know long term. But right now I know people collection the royalties as owners of the masters and Suno continues to claim in writing over and over the account holder owns the master.

Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks
jpfolkspro@gmail.com
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