AI song generator Udio offers brief window for downloads after Universal
settlement upsets users
[November 03, 2025] By
MATT O'BRIEN and KELVIN CHAN
Artificial intelligence song generation platform Udio said it would give
its frustrated users 48 hours starting Monday to download their songs
before the company shifts to a new business model to comply with a legal
settlement.
The short reprieve comes after Udio on Wednesday said it had settled
copyright infringement claims brought by Universal Music, a label with
artists including Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake and Kendrick
Lamar.
AI companies are now fighting so many copyright lawsuits that a tech
industry lobby group, the Chamber of Progress, last week called on
President Donald Trump to sign an executive order directing federal
attorneys “to intervene in legal cases” to defend the industry's
practice of building generative AI tools by feeding them on copyrighted
works.
Citing more than 50 pending federal cases, the group asked for help
stopping court fights leading to “potentially company-killing penalties”
that threaten AI innovation. But artists have warned that AI tools built
on their works also threaten their livelihoods.
In the biggest settlement so far, AI company Anthropic agreed to pay
$1.5 billion — or $3,000 per book — to settle claims from authors who
alleged the company illegally pirated nearly half a million of their
works to train its chatbot.
Udio and Universal didn't disclose the financial terms of their new
music licensing agreements. They also said they will team up on a new
streaming platform.
As part of the agreement, Udio immediately stopped allowing people to
download songs they’ve created, which sparked a backlash and apparent
exodus among paying users.
“We know the pain it causes to you,” Udio later said in a post on
Reddit's Udio forum, where users were venting about feeling betrayed by
the platform’s surprise move and complained that it limited what they
could do with their music.
Udio said it still must stop downloads as it transitions to a new
streaming platform next year. But over the weekend, it said it will give
people 48 hours starting at 11 a.m. Eastern time Monday to keep their
“past creations.”
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 “Udio is a small company operating
in an incredibly complex and evolving space, and we believe that
partnering directly with artists and songwriters is the way
forward,” said Udio's post.
The settlement deal was the music industry's first since Universal,
along with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Records, sued Udio
and another AI song generator, Suno, last year over copyright
infringement.
Udio and Suno pioneered AI song generation technology, which can
spit out new songs based on prompts typed into a chatbot-style text
box. Users, who don’t need musical talent, can merely request a tune
in the style of, for example, classic rock, 1980s synth-pop or West
Coast rap.
Record labels have accused the platforms of exploiting the recorded
works of artists without compensating them.
In its lawsuit filed against Udio last year, Universal sought to
show how specific AI-generated songs made on Udio closely resembled
Universal-owned classics like Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” The
Temptations’ “My Girl," ABBA's “Dancing Queen” and holiday favorites
like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “Jingle Bell Rock.”
A musician-led group, the Artist Rights Alliance, said Friday that
the Universal-Udio settlement represents a positive step in creating
a “legitimate AI marketplace” but raised questions about whether
independent artists, session musicians and songwriters will be
sufficiently protected from AI practices that present an
“existential threat” to their careers.
“Licensing is the only version of AI’s future that doesn’t result in
the mass destruction of art and culture," the group said. “But this
promise must be available to all music creators, not just to major
corporate copyright holders.”
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