Copyright case against AI music firm Udio moves to New York

A federal judge has declined to dismiss the copyright class action a group of independent artists brought against AI music generator Udio, but has transferred the case to New York from Illinois, according to Music Business Worldwide's August 5 report. Judge Sara L. Ellis of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied Udio's motion to dismiss "without prejudice to refiling in the Southern District of New York," and granted Udio's own request to transfer the case there in an order filed August 3.

The lawsuit was filed on October 15, 2025 by ten independent musicians and songwriters suing "individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated." The named plaintiffs include David Woulard, a Chicago firefighter who records as Davo Sounds, composer Magnus Fiennes, the band Attack the Sound, and songwriters Stan and James Burjek, represented by the law firm Loevy & Loevy. Eight of the plaintiffs are based in Illinois, one in Georgia and one in California.

Their amended complaint, filed January 7, brings 14 counts against Udio, including seven counts of copyright infringement, three under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and claims under Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act and Right of Publicity Act. It accuses Udio of "systematically copying and storing works by independent artists to fuel a commercial, mass-market music-generation engine," built from a library of unauthorized recordings the suit says went "beyond any technical need." The plaintiffs frame their case as distinct from the major labels' own lawsuits, saying it targets "the significant and unequal harm inflicted on independent musicians."

Udio, a Delaware corporation that says it has no employees or operations in Illinois, had asked the court to either dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction or move it to New York. The company argued the plaintiffs "have come back with an amended complaint that seemingly throws everything at the jurisdictional wall in hope that something might stick," and pointed to an earlier, "substantially duplicative" class action, Justice v. Uncharted Labs, already pending in the Southern District of New York.

The transfer puts the independent artists' case in the same New York court already handling the major labels' litigation against Udio. Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group sued the company there in June 2024 in a case coordinated by the RIAA; Universal and Warner have since settled and struck licensing deals with Udio, while Sony has filed a further suit asserting more than 30,000 recordings against the company. It comes the same week Universal Music asked a different New York court to dismiss a separate lawsuit from the musicians' union over its own Udio licensing deal, and as Luminate found most people want AI's role in music disclosed.

The American Federation of Musicians has separately sued Universal and Warner, alleging the labels licensed union members' recordings to Udio and Suno without compensation or credit. With Judge Ellis's order, both the major-label lawsuits and the independent artists' class action are now set to proceed in the same Southern District of New York courtroom.