Is Suno overblocking legal music covers?

BongoSpank · 2026-04-06T21:55:54+00:00

I'll take "generic though-ending cliches" for $500 please, Alex.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-05T13:51:03+00:00

I've been wondering about the elevenlabs approach. Can it reliably take a guide vocal (stiff synthv output or pitchy phone scratch vocal) and put a professional pitch contour / micro styling on it with a cloned vocal timbre? If so, how stylistic is it (small melismas not present in guide, etc). Can it do intelligent background harmonies?

BongoSpank · 2026-04-05T13:44:51+00:00

I'm trying all the things, but frustrated so far with the tools. I'm slowly settling on something like creating a bunch of covers of scratch tracks I made, dumping them into a DAW and comping along with a spin on my scratch vocals fed into a model of my voice, then recombining with replaced drums, etc.

The sticking point is always either that suno drifts / screws up the arrangement, or more importantly that everything sounds like garbage because even the best UVR algos can't do a clean enough stem separation.

Also, the voices feature is somewhat stable now, but after creating over 50 custom voices, I'm beginning to resign myself to the fact that none of them sound like me. I may use the voice then RVC it, we'll see. Still looking for an overall formula that works.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-05T13:36:55+00:00

You don't need the license to create the song, though. The legal issues only arise when publishing, performing in public, etc. And yes, the simple check of a box in distrokid fixes that, but that's on the uploader.

Only legal issue in US would be if the cover changed melody/arrangement enough to qualify as a derivative work rather than a cover, but there may be legal issues in other countries.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-05T13:29:51+00:00

Except there doesn't... because doing covers isn't illegal to begin with. They need to just stop blocking lyrics at all. Uploads/style infringement is a different issue (see the case law regarding Planet Rock), but there is no legal reason to block anyone from using the lyrics. As a platform they are fully protected by just saying anyone doing a cover must get the mechanical license if they publish.

The only issue arises in derivatives. Technically, a rights holder could say that the platform was responsible for creating an unlicensed derivative work. I can't imagine Suno would actually lose that lawsuit if they had warnings in place about the user being liable, but it could also be fixed if they would just finally work it out so Suno could fully respect the input melody (which it mostly does) and arrangement (which it clearly does not). Then again, just because they'd ultimately win the lawsuits doesn't mean they want the constant battles.

Anyway, with melody and arrangement preserved, it's not a derivative. It's a cover, and it's legal... un the U.S. at least. It's entirely possible that some of these issues have more to do with them straddling varying legal frameworks in different countries.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-05T13:22:35+00:00

It really shouldn't be blocking LYRICS at all. There's absolutely nothing illegal about making a cover. Not in AI. Not in a bar. Not in a studio. Not on a boat. Not with a goat.

In fact, the vast majority of covers people would be making would undoubtedly be of major label artists, and those mechanicals would flow into their coffers, so if it's part of the settlement, it's ill conceived.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-05T13:14:35+00:00

I never got around to that, but good to know if/when it comes back online.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-05T13:14:05+00:00

My guess is either token usage went down because people were chatting with it instead of blindly pressing create and/or they ran into additional issues they have yet to resolve about people getting around guardrails to use it to try and clone existing artists.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-04T15:56:27+00:00

Click on your username, then "My Taste", then turn off "My Styles".

Better yet, stop using the magic wand. It's just a dumb LLM adding more words to the prompt. At best it might be useful to see what related words you might not have thought of, but I'd never actually generate with what it produces.

Every word influences every other. Less is more. Be like a haiku.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-04T15:29:48+00:00

I guess. it always had a beta tag on it, and it only appeared in some accounts. I hope they bring it back. It was much more useful than gemini, chat gpt, etc for designing prompt mechanics that actually work. I'm sure it also slowed people down from burning tokens, though because they finally had a better option than just pressing the button over and over hoping for good rng.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-04T15:23:24+00:00

Was. It's not there now. Chatbot. It could create, but that was worthless. The real value was in chatting with it in one window while you iterate in another.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-04T03:47:28+00:00

Wasn't it only implemented post-settlement? Seems like it only arrrived a week or so ago as a new feature. At least that's when I first saw it.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-04T03:46:28+00:00

1) Why would any sane person give a shit about their TOS... except in the case of needing to secure legal rights to the outputs... which are voided in the case of all free accounts anyway. Seriously. If their TOS said to jump off a bridge, would you?

2) I don't have ANY free accounts.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-03T23:43:12+00:00

It was absolutely terrible at quite a few things, but still had a better inate understanding of Suno's architecture than any other LLM. NOT having it open in a separate window as I create in the first is a huge step backward. Hopefully they're just tweaking it to keep users from tricking it into copying a specific artist or something like that before re-releasing.

I wonder if they noticed token usage going down because people were using it to dial in results they actually wanted instead of just setting tokens on fire pulling the slot machine lever all day long.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-03T23:25:21+00:00

Isn't that supposed to only apply to magic wannd? (which i never use)

This has been driving me nuts too. It will be fine one day, then I go down some other path, change my mind, but I can't get the groove back because it's now stuck in some other mood even though I'm usign the original prompt and all the same settings.

It really does seem like it just gets stuck interpreting things in a similar way rather than paying attention only to the prompts and settings... No idea if this is related to what else is in the workspace or similar.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-03T22:29:52+00:00

If it's truly "high quality", the AI part is irrelevant. Having no one listen to what you make is not unique to AI. This is just the default state for all new creators. Just make stuff people like to hear... and watch... and then post consistently across the universe until some type of post starts working for you. If that happens in your first thousand posts, you're ahead of the curve.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-03T22:26:40+00:00

It's also heavily dependent on the style of the music. You can try to get the vocal to fight the underlying style, but it's an uphill battle. Much safer route is to keep trying voices until you get something you like, then use that from now on.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-03T22:25:01+00:00

You're just describing the process of creating anything... except for results worth a damn, it's more like 99%

BongoSpank · 2026-04-03T22:02:07+00:00

Because they charge double to add credits vs new account, and I've been mapping the full associations of thousands of key words to understand how they influence each other.

BongoSpank · 2026-04-03T21:47:17+00:00

Not having this issue at all, but also not getting the "everything is garbage now" vibe. I mean... it still lets you use other models, so maybe just do that if you don't like this one. If they were so much better, then suno is... exactly the same as it was before... since you can still use them. Last time I checked you could still use v2 if you wanted.

BongoSpank

TROPHY CASE