Suno

Suno crossed a real quality threshold in 2024-2025 and is now used by many indie creators for theme music and one-off cues. The 2026 legal picture is genuinely complicated. Warner Music Group settled with Suno on November 25, 2025 and now licenses content through the platform.

Universal Music Group and Sony Music are still actively litigating — UMG hit a settlement impasse with Suno in April 2026, and Sony Music remains the last major label refusing to settle. A pivotal fair-use ruling is expected in summer 2026 that could set precedent for the entire AI music industry.

Pricing: Pro at $8/month and Premier at $24/month grant commercial license to outputs; the free tier is generous for experimentation but outputs are explicitly non-commercial. Following the Warner settlement and the ongoing UMG/Sony litigation, Suno retired older models trained on unlicensed music and launched new licensed models with restricted capabilities — free-tier downloads were removed and paid users now have monthly download caps.

Where it shines is for podcast theme music where you need vocals or a specific style on demand. The quality is genuinely usable and the paid plans are cheap relative to commissioned music.

Where it falls short is for music intended for streaming-platform release as a music product — the legal risk of unresolved Sony litigation hangs over high-profile commercial use. For most podcast use, paid Suno is pragmatic; for monetized music distribution, the risk profile is worse.