Amazon's Alexa Can Now Create Songs Using Nothing But AI and Your Voice—But at What Cost?

Saturday, 1 March 2025 05:48

The collaboration with controversial AI music company Suno could transform music consumption—or start a new copyright war.

Amazon's Alexa+ just got a musical upgrade, but major record labels are not singing along.

The tech giant has partnered with AI music company Suno for a new integration that allows users to generate complete songs, including lyrics, vocals and instrumentals, simply by asking Alexa. The feature is part of Amazon's broader rollout of Alexa+, an upgraded version of its voice assistant infused with AI-powered capabilities, according to Billboard.

"Using Alexa's integration with Suno, you can turn simple, creative requests into complete songs," Amazon wrote in a blog post announcing the update this week. "Looking to delight your partner with a personalized song for their birthday based on their love of cats, or surprise your kid by creating a rap using their favorite cartoon characters? Alexa+ has you covered."

Amazon's embrace of Suno is raising eyebrows across the music industry, considering the owner of a major streaming service would align itself with an AI company currently being sued for its data practices. It's worth noting that Amazon has also invested $8 billion in the AI juggernaut Anthropic, which is currently entangled in its own copyright lawsuit with music publishers.

Major labels "are not happy" about Alexa's Suno integration, according to music tech executive Drew Thurlow, Sony's former Head of A&R, who said Amazon's music partners were not notified prior. Even more perplexing is the fact that Amazon Music deepened its relationship with Universal Music Group just two months ago, pledging in late-December to collaborate on efforts to combat "unlawful AI-generated content."

The Alexa+ announcement comes at a precarious time for Suno, which is currently embroiled in a contentious legal battle with Universal, Sony and Warner, who have accused it of copyright infringement "on an almost unimaginable scale." Spearheaded by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the lawsuit alleges that Suno used copyrighted recordings without permission to train its AI models. The trade body is seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each copyrighted work.

In a court filing, Suno conceded that its AI model "presumably" trained itself on "tens of millions" of copyrighted recordings, though the company maintained that its practices fall within legal bounds. Co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman has dismissed the explosive lawsuit as "fundamentally flawed," arguing that "learning is not infringing."

Shulman poured gasoline on the controversy in January, when he faced ubiquitous backlash after claiming on a podcast that most people find the music creation process "not really enjoyable."

Whether this gamble pays off remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: Alexa isn't just playing your favorite songs anymore. Now, it's making them.