A powerful coalition of artist rights advocates has launched an open campaign urging the music community to reject Suno, an AI-driven music generation platform that has sparked intense controversy over copyright, compensation and creative ownership. In an open letter titled “Say No to Suno,” a group of organisations and creators called out the generative AI company for allegedly building its business by scraping copyrighted material and competing against the very human music it draws from. 

The letter published on February 23 on the Music Technology Policy blog was signed by leading groups such as the Music Artist Coalition, European Composer and Songwriter Alliance, Artist Rights Alliance, North Music Group, Artist Rights Institute, and ECR Music Group. They argue that Suno’s AI tools use artists’ work without proper permission or compensation and flood platforms with AI-generated “slop” that dilutes revenue and undermines legitimate creators. 

Critics also address the debate over “walled gardens,” a concept where AI-generated music would remain confined to controlled systems to protect rights holders. Suno executives have pushed back, arguing that closed systems limit innovation, but the letter’s authors counter that artists’ intellectual property must be protected and fairly monetised. 

The campaign comes amid ongoing legal battles involving major labels and AI music tools accused of using copyrighted recordings for AI training without licences  a core part of the dispute around AI’s role in the music industry. 

As AI technologies expand, the “Say No to Suno” initiative highlights growing concerns among creators that unregulated AI platforms could destabilise how artists are compensated and how their work is valued in a rapidly changing digital landscape.