They Took the Catalogs, Now They’re Coming for the Concerts: Inside Suno’s Songkick Play

Suno, the AI-powered music creation platform with more than 100 million users, just finalized a major licensing deal with Warner Music Group. As part of the agreement, former Atlantic Records EVP Paul Sinclair has joined Suno, bringing his reputation for bridging artistry and tech into a new, highly contested arena. Once called “brilliant at translating our artists’ personal creative visions into the digital universe” by former Atlantic heads Julie Greenwald and Craig Kallman, Sinclair is now working on behalf of a company currently facing lawsuits from Universal Music Group, Sony Music and a coalition of independent artists for alleged “mass copyright infringement.”

The Warner deal marks a pivotal moment in the evolving relationship between the music industry and AI. WMG artists and songwriters will have opt-in control over whether their work is used to train Suno’s models, and if they choose to participate, royalties will be paid out for any music generated using that data. It also confirms a broader industry shift: generative AI platforms are beginning to accept the principle that training data must be both licensed and compensated. For Warner, the deal also represents something else — a clever bit of business that reduces cost and complexity by handing off a struggling asset.

Buried in the official announcement was a detail that raised eyebrows: Suno has acquired Songkick, the live music discovery app once operated by WMG. While Songkick has been popular with fans, it has not been a profitable business for Warner. Its most recent financial filings revealed £4.5 million in turnover, zero profit, and £13.5 million in debt owed to other Warner entities. The app’s continued existence was contingent on WMG not calling in that debt and continuing to offer financial support. For Warner CEO Robert Kyncl, including Songkick in the deal served a dual purpose: unloading a money-losing platform and shedding the 25-person staff as part of a broader effort to cut $300 million in annual costs.

As Music Business Worldwide put it, “AI artists can’t play live. So what exactly does Suno want with a concert app?” The answer might lie in data. Songkick’s user base and years of behavioral data tied to Spotify listening habits could be invaluable to a company like Suno. Understanding what fans actually want to hear is a crucial edge for any generative platform trying to make AI music that feels real, relevant and listenable. Whether the Songkick acquisition helped reduce the cash needed for the settlement or was a strategic data grab, it signals that Suno’s long game is about more than just song generation. It’s about intelligence, insight and positioning.

Still, Suno’s financial posture isn’t limitless. A recent pitch deck obtained by Billboard revealed the company had secured $250 million in new funding, but only allocated 15 percent to data costs and 5 percent to partnerships. Even when combined, that’s $50 million out of a $250 million budget — not exactly a war chest for settling with three of the most powerful music companies in the world. The timing of the Songkick handoff may have made the WMG deal possible in a way that avoided large upfront payouts. But with UMG and Sony still in litigation, it’s unclear whether similar settlements can be reached on such tight terms.

Notably, Suno’s deal with WMG allows for more user freedom than other recent AI licensing deals. When Udio signed with UMG earlier this fall, users suddenly lost the ability to download their own creations. In contrast, Suno users will still be able to generate songs, download them and distribute the tracks to streaming platforms — at least until 2026, when new licensed models are expected to go live. Monthly caps will be introduced, and older training data will be deprecated, but the core functionality of Suno remains intact. For artists who use the platform, it’s a win. For Warner, it’s a calculated risk.

That risk may be shaped by international pressures. As MBW notes, clamping down too hard on Western AI companies could lead to losing ground to open-source competitors from overseas. China’s DeepSeek is already making waves, and Tencent Music announced earlier this year that DeepSeek has been integrated into its songwriting tools. One Reddit user summarized the growing unease with a single sentence: “Suno is falling. Don’t worry, China is surely cooking up its open-source killer.” Others echoed similar sentiments, predicting a wave of new platforms emerging out of China to replace what Suno users feel they’re about to lose.

Reactions from Suno’s creative community have been mixed at best. While some recognize the benefits of licensing, others feel the platform’s edge has dulled. “It was great till it lasted,” one user wrote on Reddit. “So all the models will be licensed,” said another. “It’ll basically just be a fucking remix hub.” And in what might be the most poetic response yet to the WMG deal, one user simply posted, “That’s it. I’m buying a guitar.”

In truth, the WMG deal doesn’t read like a punishment. It reads like a bet. A licensed but fully functional Suno may be Warner’s play to avoid losing cultural and commercial ground to unlicensed operators. And if that deal came with a bit of Suno equity on top — as MBW hints may be the case — then Kyncl might be positioning WMG not just to survive the AI shift, but to profit from it.