- 2 days ago
Breaking news in the AI music world: Suno CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman sits down with Billboard’s Kristin Robinson for the launch of Suno’s new V6 models, which he says were made “in partnership with the industry” for the first time. Though Suno is actively being sued by a number of music companies, like Universal, Sony, SOCAN, Koda and more, for copyright infringement, the AI music company has also announced three partnerships in the music biz — Warner Music Group, Believe and BMG — and V6 marks the first time Suno is sharing its revenue with industry partners. Shulman also shares that, later on, he believes these partnerships are laying the groundwork for future Suno products that let fans remix, sample and interact with artists’ music that choose to participate.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Suno has officially launched its partnership with the music industry, and we're here for a special breaking news edition of
00:05On the Record to break this news down.
00:08Today, we are welcoming back Suno CEO Mikey Shulman to give us the inside scoop.
00:13But I will say, as our AI music reporter at Billboard, I have known that this was coming for a
00:18while.
00:18In late 2025, Warner Music Group and Suno settled their part of a blockbuster copyright infringement lawsuit Warner filed alongside
00:26two other major music companies.
00:27And as part of that settlement and agreement, Suno promised to launch models in partnership with Warner sometime in the
00:34near future.
00:35And it's also worth saying here that Universal and Sony are still pursuing this lawsuit that Warner exited.
00:40Then, just a few weeks ago, BMG, another large music company, also agreed to partner with Suno on future models
00:46as well.
00:47And before we get into my burning questions with Mikey, of which I have many, here's a little bit about
00:52what launched today.
00:54Suno calls this launch V6, which is apparently faster and has better fidelity than previous models.
01:00Within the V6 suite of offerings, there are three models.
01:04V6, which Suno has told me is the best model for most use cases.
01:08And then there's V6 Wild for folks who are looking for an AI tool to take their music in more
01:13interesting and off-the-wall directions to spark creativity.
01:16And then there's V6 Mini, which is a smaller and slightly less powerful version of V6.
01:21And it's the only model in the suite that's available for free users.
01:25So you can't get V6 Wild or V6 without a paid subscription.
01:30According to Suno's chief product officer, Jack Dolby, music industry partners will receive a revenue share tied to V6 for
01:37the first time.
01:38Importantly, though, Suno also announced that this is just the start.
01:42There's a phase two of this rollout, which hasn't happened yet.
01:45And I find phase two to be even more interesting.
01:48The date on that is TBD, but it will include personalized experiences for artists signed to Warner or BMG who
01:54want to opt in to have Suno users remix, sample, or otherwise create derivatives of their work.
02:00And there will be some sort of a revenue stream that opens up for artists specific to that.
02:05And then the more your music is used, I'm told, by Jack, the more royalties are accrued.
02:11Now, I imagine you have a million questions on your mind when you hear all of this.
02:14In this conversation, I'm going to try to get as much information for you as I can so we can
02:19go beyond the press release and get to the details.
02:21Like I said, this is a special bonus episode because I got this opportunity to have Mikey come on the
02:26pod pretty last minute.
02:28But given Suno has undoubtedly become the most fast growing and controversial new company in music, we believed it was
02:35worth it.
02:35I wanted to flag that we have another special episode of the podcast airing tomorrow with music director Ray Chu.
02:41He's worked on everything from Dancing with the Stars to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Grammys, Saturday Night Live, and
02:48so much more.
02:49It's a really fun conversation, so please make sure you come back and tune in for that tomorrow.
02:54Now, without further ado, let's start to my conversation with Mikey Shulman, CEO of Suno.
03:00Mikey, I wanted to start with what you think makes V6 an important launch for you guys as a company.
03:08Thrilled to be here.
03:09I would just take a huge step back and just think about what is it that Suno is here to
03:13do?
03:13Like, why does this company exist?
03:15You know, I have this very firm belief that not only is every single person creative, but everybody enjoys being
03:22creative.
03:22Everybody feels really good after a half an hour of being creative versus a half an hour of doing another
03:29entertainment activity.
03:31And when we think about what is possible, doing things in partnership with the industry is really exciting.
03:38It lets us do things that would have never before been possible.
03:42And so the models that we're releasing today are V6 is what we call it.
03:47It is the best model we've ever made.
03:50It makes incredible music.
03:51We're releasing V6 Wild, which is the most creative model, which is done in much closer partnership with some of
03:59the best creatives in the world that we know.
04:01And while it may not make the perfect single song, it will come up with some of the best ideas
04:07and some of the most interesting sounds.
04:09And I am personally, like, kind of addicted to it.
04:13And V6 Mini, which is the best free model that anyone's ever made.
04:17But when we think about what it is that we're launching here, it is a first, it's a one of
04:22a kind, it's the first of its kind model developed with the industry.
04:28And it will be a platform for all of the stuff that we can continue to build together with our
04:33partners in the future, products that don't exist today, products that will launch at some point in the future and
04:38actually continue to evolve.
04:39And the whole point of doing this in partnership is nobody knows the right answers of exactly how these products
04:45should look today and to be able to develop them together.
04:47And that is something that could not have happened without these partnerships.
04:50Got it.
04:51And there's also part of this announcement is that on the roadmap, there's going to be more with your partners,
04:57Warner and BMG, in the future.
04:59So what is that about?
05:00What are you working towards?
05:01So today we're releasing just the models.
05:04And so there are lots of new capabilities that come with them.
05:07But in the future, we will be building products together or we are building products together with our partners that
05:13let you interact with the music of your favorite artist.
05:16And that is the thing that is so inspiring to people, feeling like I can co-create with my favorite
05:20artist.
05:21I can participate in music culture.
05:23I can express my creativity in ways that I could not have without being able to use their stuff.
05:27And so this is things like remixing my favorite artist's content, otherwise adapting it, sampling from it, et cetera, et
05:34cetera, really allowing people to flex their creative muscles in ways they haven't been able to before, including on our
05:41platform, which is designed entirely to let people flex their creative muscles.
05:44Okay.
05:45So do you have a timeline for when that's going to happen?
05:47I think about this much more as an ongoing process of we will release something at some point in the
05:54coming months.
05:54It will evolve.
05:57The amazing thing about AI and making music interactive in ways that it has never been before is there's not
06:03a product.
06:04And I think we're very trained because of the current offerings out there to just think of music as a
06:09product or digital music as a product.
06:11And I think in the future, the ways in which you will be able to interact with music on different
06:17platforms really widens.
06:19And so for the first time in a long time, we'll have serious product differentiation, let's say, within a platform,
06:25across platforms.
06:26And ultimately, that's really good both for users, the consumer, and also for the artists, the creative, the rights holders,
06:32and the ecosystem writ large.
06:34Mm-hmm.
06:35Okay.
06:36So given you're saying this is in partnership with the music industry, is there compensation flowing to Warner and BMG,
06:43the first two partners that you guys have announced?
06:45It's a little bit hard to get into the specific here.
06:48But this is and will be a really important new line of business for all of our partners going forward.
06:57It will get actually easier as time goes on, especially as the products themselves get more and more defined, to
07:02actually say exactly how these new lines of business will develop.
07:06Got it, got it.
07:07Well, I spoke with your chief product officer before this call just to kind of get a lay of the
07:11land of V6.
07:13And he was mentioning that this is a revenue share with your partners.
07:17Is that correct?
07:19That's right.
07:20Okay.
07:20Okay.
07:21So revenue share from the V6 models that rolled out today.
07:25And then down the line, you have these things that you're building towards, which will involve artist works that you
07:32can kind of remix, make samples of, all that stuff.
07:35And I imagine there's also going to be another revenue stream that appears from that, right?
07:40How does that work?
07:41It's a little too early to say, but I would stress here that there's going to be a lot of
07:45differentiation on the product side going forward.
07:48There's not just going to be one product.
07:49There will be a whole bunch of different products, a whole suite of products.
07:53They will be different platform to platform.
07:56They may be different partner to partner.
07:58And so maybe, unfortunately, that means that some of these business models are going to get more complicated in the
08:03short term.
08:04But actually, the really exciting thing is that as that happens, the differentiation, the depth with which we can pull
08:11our users into music more, ultimately the engagement and excitement and enjoyment that our users get from the platform gets
08:16much, much larger.
08:17And so I don't think anybody has all of the answers today of exactly what these business models will look
08:24like.
08:24We have, I would say, good ideas and good guesses.
08:27And I'm mostly excited to develop the products with our partners.
08:33That has to be the thing that actually informs what the business models look like.
08:36Okay.
08:37Okay.
08:37So when you start working towards these models where there are certain songs that you can remix and sample and
08:42that kind of thing, do artists get the opportunity to decide whether or not they want their songs to be
08:48on Suno available for users to remix?
08:51Ultimately, some stuff will be different rights holder to rights holder or partner to partner, but we are never going
08:56to have songs on platform for users to remix, interact with, otherwise adapt without rights holder consent.
09:05Okay.
09:05Okay.
09:06So sometimes like the rights holder, meaning the record company?
09:08Sorry, without the artist's consent, the creative's consent.
09:10Oh, okay.
09:11Okay.
09:11Yeah.
09:12Yeah.
09:12Well, because sometimes rights holder can mean artist.
09:14Sometimes it can mean music company.
09:17Gotcha.
09:18Gotcha.
09:18Okay.
09:19V6 Wild.
09:21I want to get into that.
09:24Why call it V6 Wild?
09:26Who is this made for?
09:28Tell me more, because this is a new line for you guys, basically.
09:31It is.
09:31It's the first time we're actually releasing something like this.
09:33Let me take a step back.
09:34I won't just give you the answer of it's for everybody, even though it is.
09:38I'll try to give you a little bit more there.
09:40I think V6 Wild will make some of the most interesting stuff that you will ever hear.
09:47But when compared to V6, if you're just comparing the songs, apples to apples, V6 Wild is going
09:55to take more liberties.
09:55And that is going to ultimately mean it doesn't always give you the thing that you were looking
10:00for.
10:00So if there's a thing that you are looking for, V6 Wild may not be the right thing for you.
10:05However, if you are looking for peak creativity, the most interesting sounds, even if it's
10:11not going to be the quote unquote perfect thing, then V6 Wild is the model that you want to
10:17use.
10:18And so you can think this is done in conjunction with a whole bunch of producers and songwriters
10:23who are using this less as, how do I make this song perfect end to end?
10:28I didn't just supply it, let's say, a full song and say, redo this for me in style XYZ,
10:34but I'm using this as a creative co-pilot, as a companion for new workflows that they've
10:38developed that maybe the world knows about or doesn't.
10:41V6 Wild makes the best stuff for that use case.
10:45And so you can think on a more local level, not the whole song, maybe a verse, maybe even
10:49five seconds, V6 Wild makes incredible stuff.
10:52As you let it maybe go a little bit longer, it's not going to be perfect for the whole
10:58song.
10:58Okay.
10:59And I'm also wondering, since you've said that this whole, you know, V6 is made in partnership
11:05with your partners, like Warner and BMG, how did you work with them to develop these?
11:11Did you get feedback from some of their artists or from the executives of the company?
11:16How did this come to be?
11:18So actually both, if we take a step back, this is a moment where with our partners, we've
11:24developed not only the model, not only the recipe for how we cook the model, but also
11:30other changes to our product that we think are incredibly important for the music ecosystem
11:35that simultaneously will continue to delight our users, but also bring our partners, artists,
11:41creatives more generally, a lot more comfort that the music ecosystem is healthy, that we
11:49are contributing to it in the right way.
11:52Specifically for Wild, that was done much more with some of the best creatives and really
11:59painstakingly listening to it, critiquing it over and over again, lots and lots of cycles
12:04like that, lots of falling on your face, lots of making bad models until you kind of end
12:08with the right one.
12:10So, you know, that's like a labor of love that's actually just really enjoyable.
12:13And then, you know, the final output of this Wild model is actually just even better.
12:17Well, that's something that you and I spoke a little bit about, I think, last time you
12:21were on the show, which is that, like, developing new AI models, it's not a straight line towards
12:27progress.
12:28Like, sometimes you try to work on something and then it takes you in a totally different
12:33direction than you thought.
12:34You know, it's not just that progress keeps happening over and over again.
12:39You have to keep tweaking, keep refining.
12:41And you guys have said in the press release about, or the blog post about these models
12:48that these are some of the fastest models you've made and the best audio quality.
12:53When did you guys feel like you reached this point where you're like, it's the Eureka moment
12:58of we solved for speed, we solved for fidelity, all of those really, really important things
13:05when trying to make a model that is a progression from your last product?
13:08Yeah.
13:09A couple of things to say there.
13:10Just on your first point, when we, you know, it's very hard to anticipate exactly what's
13:16going to happen.
13:16I said lots of times, you know, we'll fall on our faces.
13:21The process for making these things is very hard to dictate.
13:25And so what I mean by that is there's not one right way to work with our partners.
13:28And you've probably seen us do lots of different things.
13:30We have long talks with executives.
13:33We hold lots of writing camps where we interact with the best songwriters who teach us a lot about
13:39how they use the product.
13:40We sit in the studio with some of our favorite producers and we learn from that.
13:44We have our Spark program where we're working with a lot of younger emerging artists who use
13:49it totally differently.
13:50And so I think by trying to be too prescriptive on exactly that, on exactly how we work with
13:56our partners, I think we end up with a worse result.
13:59By working with our partners and the industry largely in lots of different ways, actually,
14:04that is just incredibly useful, not only for building bridges, but also for understanding
14:09how these things work.
14:10I forgot your second question.
14:12Well, I was just wondering if you guys had a eureka moment where you were like, we have
14:16just kind of solved for all of these things you have been trying to solve for for a while.
14:21You know, unfortunately not.
14:25And progress is not just a straight line.
14:27And so you rarely have a eureka moment in terms of the quality.
14:33Um, sometimes in terms of a capability that we can release next to the model, we will
14:38get an idea from a great creative from sitting with them and they'll say, can you do X, Y,
14:43Z?
14:44And we'll think to ourselves, I don't know, maybe let's go try.
14:47And in those cases, it's much closer to the eureka moment of you work at it for a long
14:52time.
14:52And finally, you do figure out how to do the crazy thing that they've asked for with the
14:56model.
14:56And then, you know, you, you jump up from your, from your chair and you shout eureka.
14:59Yeah, fair enough.
15:01Okay, so I was looking back at the press releases or blog posts or whatever you'd like to call
15:07them that were put out when you guys started these partnerships with BMG and with Warner.
15:13So Warner's dates back to 2025.
15:14BMG is much more recent, I think like a month or two ago, really.
15:18And I noticed in it that it's never referred to in either case as a licensing deal.
15:24But yet I think that's how the music industry sees these deals.
15:27Instead, with the Warner press release, it refers to it as a partnership.
15:33And then in the BMG one, it's, it's a global alliance that establishes a strategic framework.
15:40I'm just wondering, just straight up, are these licensing deals?
15:43And if so, is this licensing for using their works for training?
15:49I don't want to speak to how other people may perceive the deal.
15:52I'll tell you how I think of these partnerships, which is what I said before.
15:56It's really geared toward long-term development of things that could not have existed without
16:01these two parties coming together.
16:02And so whether that is products that are user-facing, whether that are products that are ultimately
16:08artist or creative-facing.
16:10And I think this is something I think you and I have discussed previously on this podcast.
16:15In my opinion, there aren't enough really long-term partnerships like this in the music
16:20industry, where we're trying to think about what could new music look, the music business
16:24look like in 10 years?
16:25What is something that we think might actually take five or 10 years to even develop?
16:28And why don't we try to go and be audacious to do that?
16:31And there you need a lot of long-term alignment and truly to feel like a partner instead of to
16:37feel like a counterparty.
16:39Got it.
16:40Okay.
16:40But is licensing a component of this partnership?
16:43We will be licensing works in order to do the products that we're building later on,
16:48whether that is remixing or sampling or otherwise modifying a piece of content.
16:54Got it.
16:55Okay.
16:55Yeah.
16:55And going back to that thing that is happening down the line where you're going to offer like
17:00a remix product or something where people can use existing IP and they can sample it,
17:05like that kind of thing.
17:06Um, you're saying that artists have to choose whether or not they'd like to be part of that.
17:11Um, and I, I'm wondering what, I mean, I imagine that it's going to be really complicated because
17:19there's going to be, Oh, I, I, I'm sure, you know, um, licensing music is complex.
17:25There's so many rights holders at play.
17:27So like, let's say someone is signed to Warner as a recording artist and they're like, I'm
17:31gung ho for this.
17:32Let's do it.
17:33But they have a songwriter who, you know, is signed to universal that doesn't yet have
17:37a partnership with Suno or something like that.
17:39Um, are you guys concerned about getting artists to opt in for this product in the future?
17:46I think like ultimately, yes, it is very complicated in the short term.
17:51And yes, these are actually new products where exactly what combination of rights you need
17:56to give the end user, the experience that you want, um, may not be obvious.
18:01I think a lot about where we are now and how do we get to where we need to be.
18:06Um, the amazing thing is actually, we can start small.
18:10We can start with what's obvious now, show people the engagement that it will bring to
18:15their music, show people the interactions that super fans can have deepening that, um,
18:23and build out from there.
18:24I am actually ultimately very optimistic that in the fullness of time, um, there's a set
18:28of products that we haven't even thought of today that we develop the right frameworks
18:33for how people can assign those rights and do whatever they need to do.
18:36I think in the short term, it's, it's a little short-sighted to get hung up on, well, you don't
18:43have exactly this or exactly that.
18:45And so the whole product is dead.
18:47Like that's obviously a little reductive.
18:49Okay.
18:50Yeah.
18:51Um, so also I know there's a lot of other companies that are kind of pursuing this realm of
18:55remixing and, um, that sort of thing, but I imagine you guys have your own vision for
19:00how that could look.
19:01Um, how do you envision you got, uh, y'all like differentiating your product from the
19:06others who are also pursuing a similar path and remixing?
19:09I think that's a great question.
19:10I think the first thing I'll say is actually you use the right word, which is differentiate,
19:14which is in the future because AI actually opens the aperture of what products you can build.
19:19There is a lot more room for differentiation than there was a couple of years ago, even in terms
19:24of what digital experiences we can give people around music, um, up to, and including how
19:30you blend digital and live together, which hasn't really been a thing until now.
19:35Um, I go back to like, what are the principles of Suno, which is letting people feel the fulfillment
19:41that they should feel when they are creative, letting people feel those warm and fuzzy feelings.
19:45And I think this is a very different lens onto it.
19:48Instead of just having a lot of derivative content on platform, it's actually making sure people
19:53enjoy the process of making that derivative.
19:57And I think that that sounds like a subtle nuance, but it's actually from a product perspective,
20:01a really different angle at things.
20:04And so it's not just about what is that end result that may or may not be an interesting
20:11representation of the original song.
20:14It's like, how did I enjoy making that?
20:16How do I enjoy the process?
20:17How did I share in music culture and participate in music culture in ways that I couldn't have
20:22before?
20:23So I think of this as much more lean in as is the rest of the Suno platform.
20:29Got it.
20:30Got it.
20:31Okay.
20:31Interesting.
20:32Well, okay.
20:33One thing that I wanted to ask you about was, um, I know that you guys said back, uh,
20:39the press release with Warner back in 2025, um, in that press release, it was noted that
20:44Suno would be limiting downloads.
20:46And now as of September 3rd, that is happening.
20:48So can you tell us more about the limiting of downloads and why you guys and Warner kind
20:54of aligned on wanting to limit downloads?
20:57Sure.
20:57I think this is, um, this goes back from, to the principles that I said before of like,
21:02we think it is important to grow the music ecosystem and to maintain a healthy relationship
21:08and healthy growth of that music ecosystem.
21:10And I think that there are concerns, um, founded or not about people downloading too much content
21:16from the platform.
21:17As we think about how our platform evolves, we want to give our users the freedom to do
21:22what they need to with their content while also balancing what our industry partners want
21:28to see from the platform.
21:29And I think we came up with like an exceedingly reasonable, um, middle ground that actually
21:33makes everybody happy.
21:36And, um, I know in that press release, it said that eventually free would have no downloads
21:42included.
21:43Um, that was in the press release with Warner so far.
21:46It looks like there has, there is going to be a limit, but the free tier, you can still have
21:50seven downloads.
21:51When do you plan to move to free having no downloads?
21:54The exact timing of these things is a little bit TBD.
21:57A lot of this is actually, again, done in partnership and not, um, against one another.
22:03And we think about, um, how do we, again, balance those two concerns in real time, making sure
22:08we give our users the best first day on the platform so that they fall in love with making
22:13music, which is ultimately really good for the music ecosystem.
22:16And so I actually don't have exact answers for you almost by design.
22:20We really think of this as how do we build this together?
22:23And as more partners come along, like BMG, it is more voices at the table and it's more
22:28opinions.
22:29And that's actually ultimately very good for the ecosystem.
22:31And I imagine these license or these, sorry, partnership talks, um, I don't want to mischaracterize
22:37that, um, have probably been going on for a long time with some of these companies, including
22:41BMG, which is your most recent partner.
22:43Um, I'm wondering kind of where you guys found some common ground, uh, with BMG.
22:50Why do you think that they're one of your first early partners?
22:53It's a little hard to speculate exactly, but I would go back to, let's say, what do Warner
22:58and BMG have in common?
23:00And when I go back to Warner, um, I started talking with Robert a long time before we inked
23:06that partnership and our first whole bunch of discussions, I don't know the exact number
23:11weren't about a partnership.
23:13They're about how do we see the world?
23:14How do we think about the future of music?
23:16Like, and from that realizing, actually, we think about the future of music in a very,
23:21very aligned way.
23:22And then you come down to like, how many downloads should the free tier have?
23:27And you realize that is an implementation detail in building a future actually that we
23:31both want to see.
23:32And with BMG, same thing, you know, it didn't happen quite as early, but it's like, you
23:36start to talk about these things.
23:38You start to talk about what future of music do we want to envision that incorporates
23:42the deepest fan engagement that, um, is good for artists, that is good for the music ecosystem
23:47that lets users participate in music culture in new ways.
23:50And then you realize that there are actually a very small number of disagreements that are
23:54from that perspective, pretty easy to work through.
23:57So with V6 being, you know, Suno's first kind of foray into partnering with the music industry,
24:03I know the music industry is very concerned about how models are trained.
24:07Um, that's been a focus for a lot of companies recently, um, and has resulted in some litigation.
24:13Um, how were the V6 models trained?
24:16Um, it's a great question.
24:18Um, at a very high level, we have our partner data.
24:21Um, we also have all of the interactions that are using.
24:25Wait, I'm so sorry.
24:25What, what is partner data?
24:27What does that mean?
24:28Um, for the initial release, it is Warner.
24:31Um, we have all of the interactions that our users give us from the platform.
24:35And so I think we've discussed this on this, on this podcast before, but just to, to remind
24:39the listeners, um, there's a lot of usage on platform.
24:43There's a lot of songs made every day.
24:45You've, you've even reported on some of that.
24:47Um, when users make a song, they will implicitly tell us whether it is good or bad or more
24:53accurately, um, we'll give users two songs and they will implicitly tell us one of those
24:58is better than the other.
24:59And we are able to take that signal and learn from it.
25:04What makes a song particularly catchy, particularly good, and use that information about these
25:09differences between songs to steer our models toward making music better or worse, hopefully
25:14better.
25:15Got it.
25:16Got it.
25:16Got it.
25:16Okay.
25:17So you have data from Warner and then you have the user inputs, whether they like songs
25:22or not, how they're prompting, that sort of thing.
25:25Um, I, I mean, is, is there more music beyond that, that is unlicensed, that is used in training
25:31V6 models?
25:32All of the data that we have from our partners is licensed.
25:37All of the user interactions then go in on top of that.
25:39And so, um, that is in our opinion, what makes for a licensed model.
25:44Okay.
25:45Okay.
25:45Yeah.
25:46Data from the partners is licensed.
25:48That's correct.
25:49But there are some people who you're not, you're not partnered with that their data might
25:52also be training the models, I think.
25:56Um, okay.
25:57So, sorry, let me, let me correct you.
25:58There is, there's no unlicensed partner data.
26:01Okay.
26:02Being used to train the V6 models.
26:04There's no.
26:04Correct.
26:05Okay.
26:05So there's not like universal songs or, uh, cobalt songs or something that are training
26:11the V6 models.
26:12Correct.
26:13No universal songs, no cobalt songs, no Sony songs, et cetera.
26:16Oh, okay.
26:18Okay.
26:18So I'm also wondering with these V6 models, you guys have really leaned into Suno Studio
26:25over the last few iterations that you guys have had in the products.
26:28Um, and it's becoming a very powerful DAW.
26:30And so I'm wondering, you know, just in terms of the full business, do you guys see yourselves
26:36as wanting to kind of disrupt and, uh, innovate in the DAW market?
26:41Or is this just kind of just a piece in the puzzle of trying to make music on Suno?
26:46I, I think of this in two ways.
26:48I don't think about it as disrupt.
26:49I think, I'm sure, you know, you know, a thousand professionals who are fairly fluent
26:55in like three different DAWs.
26:57And I don't think about this as replacing actually Suno Studio.
27:01If you, if you use it, you realize it's actually not really designed to be a hundred percent
27:04of your screen real estate.
27:06It is designed to do some workflows incredibly well and importantly, incredibly enjoyably.
27:11Um, and you may have noticed, uh, a couple of weeks ago released, we released Studio 2.0
27:16with a whole bunch of incredible upgrades, including MIDI.
27:20Um, and I think about this as we actually, we, so I, I don't love the word disrupt, but
27:26you use the word innovate there, which is there are going to be new workflows because we have
27:31new technologies that are innovative, that come up with really interesting music.
27:36And that is a way to push music forward in, um, in my opinion, very obviously good ways
27:40and to make it enjoyable in a way that I think about this as when you pick up a physical
27:47instrument and you have some emotional connection, let's say to your favorite guitar or the childhood
27:52piano that you grew up playing.
27:54Um, it makes you feel a certain way and people don't expect to have that from a digital tool.
28:00And, um, I think why not?
28:03Like the tool itself can be so fun, so enjoyable to use, so, um, conducive to incredible flow
28:10state that you actually do develop those kinds of feelings from it.
28:13And, um, I think again, this is like lack of imagination on the parts of lots of people
28:20to think a digital tool can't be that way.
28:22Mm.
28:23Mm.
28:23And also, I mean, we're, we're coming a little bit to a close here.
28:27Um, but I, I wanted to make sure I asked you personally, what is something that you're
28:33rolling out today that you are particularly excited about?
28:36One like little feature that people might miss otherwise.
28:39Do I have to do one?
28:41Will you permit me two?
28:43You can do multiple.
28:43I will give you two.
28:44I, I think wild is awesome.
28:47And I would encourage people to play around with it a lot and to explore the different things
28:52that it can come up with.
28:53Cause sometimes they're weird and that's ultimately, it makes you think, um, all good
28:58art should make you think.
28:59And so, um, don't sleep on V6 wild.
29:02Um, there are new ways that we are letting our users describe music.
29:08And in particular, I mean, how do I take a song that Tsuno has given me and describe how
29:13I want to change it in ways that have never been possible before?
29:16And so this is like, can you do edits where you change the baseline to be, you know, a
29:23little drier or a little more melodic and then also take the whole thing and cover it
29:27into flamenco or whatever it is that you want to describe.
29:31That's just totally new.
29:33Um, and it will delight people because it actually gets you thinking on a totally new plane.
29:39Um, I'll stop there.
29:41There's a few other things that I'm also really excited about.
29:43One more thing before we go, um, cause I, I just was thinking about this, the, with the
29:47training, you say that it's trained on licensed material from Warner, but you didn't mention
29:52BMG.
29:53So is, is BMG not part of the training set for now?
29:58In what we're releasing today, um, because of the timing of the partnership, uh, no.
30:02Um, but we expect it to come to a model release in the pretty near future.
30:07Um, and that actually could be a model that we don't officially release, but it's actually
30:11kind of rolled out under the hood.
30:12And so there may not be an announcement per se about that model, but we think it's, it's
30:16pretty soon.
30:17Got it.
30:18And the revenue share, at least for Warner starts now, like now that the model is out,
30:23correct?
30:24Little hard to get into the particulars there.
30:26It's approximately correct.
30:28Okay.
30:28Okay.
30:29Sounds good.
30:29Well, Mikey Shulman, thank you so much for coming back to On The Record.
30:32Thanks for talking V6 with us and we'll have to see you soon.
30:36So good to be here.
30:37Hope everyone goes and tries it out.
30:39Awesome.
30:41All right.
30:42Thank you so much to Mikey Shulman for coming to talk about Suno's new V6 launch.
30:46And thank you for listening to this week's episode of On The Record and stay tuned for
30:50our regular episode of the podcast with music director Ray Chu out tomorrow.
30:54If you liked today's show, give us a follow on Instagram or on our TikTok page at Billboard
30:58On The Record, where you can find new clips of this show every single week.
31:03We'd also appreciate it if you rated our show on your favorite podcast platform.
31:06All of those things help On The Record grow bigger and better than ever.
31:10I'm your host, Kristen Robinson, and tune in next week for another peek behind the curtain
31:14of the music business.
31:15I'll see you then.
Comments