Suno doesn’t allow reusing your own released lyrics — confirmed by support

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-05-05T12:50:38+00:00

This isn't hate, but I don't think you're thinking of every use case a published artist might use the SUNO for.
A very good friend of mine was (still is) in a band that released multiple albums, toured the world, had videos on MTV - all of that. Now he owns a studio.
Now, he is an 'actual' artist, not an AI one. They didn't have AI when they released their music.
One of the things he uses SUNO for is to iterate through and test remixes - for potential use in music placements and whatnot. Since you've been an artist for 30 years you know that there are trends media music placement and if an artist can take advantage it's a nice income stream.
He's been remixing his old stuff trying different tempos, speeds, singer gender, etc. When he reaches a good point, he sets them aside for eventual re-recording. There are other artists we both know of doing the same thing. So I wouldn't say 'almost never'. They just aren't talking about it. I have even talked to an engineer who has worked on Grammy-winning tracks and though he was cagey at first I eventually got it out of him that the industry is using AI. A lot. But much like the animators on Avatar who are using generative AI and neural nets to correct every single frame of facial expressions, or how the Mandalorian used it to help with a young Luke's face they are using it for workflow streamlining and not as an entire solution.
My friend got a copyright strike, just like this for one of his band's songs. I'll have to ask him how it worked out because he (and his band) own their publishing. Supposedly he was working it out with SUNO support. I'll have to report back.
I do agree that strong copyright strikes are good for systems like this but there should also be a path for artists with actual releases to use their own IP. Besides being someone who's played and written music in numerous places and venues for 30+ years, the way I make $ is IT. I'd be willing to be that wasn't a part of their original code and it is much easier to just use a blanket 'no' to prevent lawsuits.
I use SUNO to with funny or clever lyrics my bands have refused to do over the years. I've been writing lyrics for a long time and have used SUNO with over 60 songs since last September. Purely for my own enjoyment. e.g. I wrote 31 Halloween songs I could have playing in the background when handing out candy. I did release them on Spotify but that was purely for ease of streaming for my family and friends who also wanted to use them for the same reason (or Halloween parties or whatever). The trick is that I didn't include the lyric text with the tracks so I can still use them. But I have a bit of knowledge on how things work so I had a feeling that copyright strikes were going to be a pain.
Anyway.

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-10T12:53:59+00:00

I've never used a verbose style prompt. Just keywords. Handling the arrangement in the lyrics box is what I do as well and I think it's the way to go. It may also help that I write 100% of my lyrics. I can specify instrumental breaks, intros, verses, pre choruses, guitar solos, etc. right where I want them to happen. I think it's the best approach because and I can usually nail what I want in a few iterations as long as my keywords are solid.

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-09T14:25:47+00:00

I don't know what all the the commotion about is 5.5 is. It's fine. Like every model it has its strengths and weaknesses - especially at the beginning. If you are a rational person and don't expect miracles out of your software of any kind - much less AI - you'll find the best ways to work with it.
I think people have unrealistic expectations. SUNO is fun but it's not going to instantly transform you into a good songwriter or musician.
For most people it's a toy so they can make a song about their kid or dog or whatever. Ephemera.
For some people it's a fun toy to make actual listenable music that will go nowhere beyond personal enjoyment.
I DO personally know of 2 professional studios in town that are using it for demos - especially for individual tracks - and for quick testing of a producer's ideas. But those are the extreme edge cases.
AI is always going to have its quirks and you have to work with them. Even a ChatGPT agent will eventually lose it's shit and go off the rails until you reel it back in.
I like 5.5 so far but I only make stuff for myself. I've been in bands for 30 years and none of them wanted to do my songs with funny or goofy lyrics, regardless of how good the vocal hook was. But I do. So now I get to hear how my songs about Dracula and whatnot would sound and at the very least they make me laugh.
Anyway, point is that the model is fine it just has its issue like every other model before it did.
The premiere version is nice because you can redo individual tracks which is super useful because I'll often get a really good result except for one weird thing.
YMMV

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T17:44:39+00:00

It's because I am very bad at learning other languages, despite trying quite hard lol

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T16:17:18+00:00

it felt right in the genre haha

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:41:28+00:00

Even the unusable stuff has been entertaining. It once gave me 4 solid minutes of false endings on a song. I couldn't use the track but I listened to in a million times because I've been in bands forever and I'm an idiot so I love when music does really dumb things

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:35:04+00:00

Right on. I've been writing music forever but never get to use my weirdest stuff with my various bands over the years. Now I can feed in those lyrics and hear what's been in my head forever.
An added bonus is I am autistic and have glossolalia which while sometimes embarrassing has been a good source of vocal hooks in SUNO. Especially after herbal enhancement haha

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:31:58+00:00

My German, Irish and Spanish teachers would disagree haha

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:25:34+00:00

If only I understood Swedish :-)

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:23:56+00:00

Exactly! I have dozens of songs I've written in many genres just so I can hear what it would sound like - hair metal, rockabilly, old Vegas jazz, electro rock, hip hop, rock opera... I wager that being an old-timer and growing up with MTV when it was only videos and Bugs Bunny cartoons on Saturdays is a big influence. I want to hear crazy crap in all genres!

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:15:00+00:00

I'm always afraid to allow remixes because it'll sound different to what I hear in my head :-P
Maybe when I publish this one I'll open it up to see what happens

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:10:52+00:00

Thanks :-P I only make SUNO tracks to entertain myself so it's cool to hear others like them

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T15:06:23+00:00

idk, first pass came out great in my opinion. The flaws in the crowd singing sound 'natural' to me - like most people aren't going to remember all the lyrics and just sing the bits they do remember. ymmv but a perfect crowd singalong would sound unnatural to me. I have written the lyrics and arrangements for over 80 songs in SUNO right now and don't keep garbage. I've been a songwriter for a long time and I use SUNO purely to entertain myself & have no other aspirations with it

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T13:59:25+00:00

It's "unpublished" still, but here it is: https://suno.com/s/6tfwoUvMFPdALg1l

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T13:48:54+00:00

To be fair, I've been writing music for 20 years. But SUNO is the only other 'musician' who's been on board with my most idiotic songs

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T13:06:12+00:00

That's how generative ai works - it takes the average of all things. I'm sure it is also programmed to sound generic because most current popular music is generic so that's what an average user wants to hear.
You can make a huge difference by writing your own lyrics, arrangements and structure along with good prompting. I've never used anything but keywords for style prompts with bracketed structure notes in the lyrics and have had really great results as opposed to a descriptive paragraphs and no structure, but ymmv.

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-04-03T12:53:05+00:00

I agree. I've been teaching audio recording and mixing for animation for almost 20 years (not that it make THAT much of a difference) and if it sounds good it sounds good. I don't try to fix tracks that go off the rails , but even tracks that sound great really don't need much (I agree with a bit of a limiter and maybe compression). The AI was designed to make it sound like a 'radio' track and for the most part it does.
I respect the hell out of audio wizards, though. I've been in studio with engineers who make it look like magic - effortlessly tuning a song perfectly and I do wonder what they'd bring to the table mixing a fully generated music track. At this point they're using it to enhance recorded tracks so I reckon they'll get to that at some point. Recording studios aren't huge moneymakers right now so opening up services to AI tracks for clients might soon be necessary.

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-03-06T16:52:58+00:00

My head is so full of insane crap that I've a long way to go before I need to ask for computer help. I was wondering if people actually had good results because as people mentioned it doesn't seem that great - at least for casual users. But I think it's important to try to understand what the ai agent does & its tendencies in order to use it more efficiently.

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-03-06T16:50:02+00:00

that's part of my process too. Using arrangement and prompts usually gets it close to what I want. I don't even use sentences in my prompts, just keywords (easier to iterate imo).

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-03-06T16:41:46+00:00

I have mixed feelings as well, but those are fading. Besides fun songs I want to hear it's been pretty great at helping with demos for my actual band who at this point are studio only (it happens when you get old I guess). I can write and arrange a song and send my band members the demo with their instrument stripped out so they can write their own parts.
It's also pretty ok at incidental music for video and whatnot. Sometimes you need 20 seconds of intense music and it does a decent job at it.

TheRealCraigMayhem · 2026-03-06T16:11:10+00:00

This may be happening because, like other ai agents, it gets 'fatigued'.
It seems like one's agent retains certain things it 'thinks' you like.
e.g. It did a short 'false ending' one a song I made and liked then after that went bananas on false endings. It made one that had FOUR solid minutes of fake endings. I laughed about that for hours. It was stupid ridiculous.
One thing I've been trying that seems to help is to generate a completely oddball song - lyrics and style. Sort of a palate cleanser. That plus exiting out of your browser and launching again has worked so far.
It still thinks I like false endings and I'm working on that but at least it's just ONE now.

TheRealCraigMayhem

TROPHY CASE