Articles / Who owns a song made with AI?
Who owns a song made with AI?
A melody and lyrics you wrote are yours. Audio a model made from a prompt alone is not copyrightable in the US. When you register, you say which parts are which. The Copyright Office sources are linked below.
What the Copyright Office says
The US Copyright Office has addressed this twice: registration guidance in March 2023 and a full Copyrightability report in January 2025. The position is consistent. Copyright protects human authorship. Material generated purely by AI is not protectable, and with current tools, "prompts do not alone provide sufficient control." The 2023 guidance compares prompting to giving "instructions to a commissioned artist": you asked for it, but you did not author it.
AI assistance does not erase the parts you wrote. Lyrics you wrote, a melody you composed, your selection and arrangement of generated pieces, and your edits stay protected when they show in the output. When you register, you disclose the AI-generated portions and claim the human ones.
What the courts say
Thaler v. Perlmutter tested the edge case of naming an AI system as the author. The D.C. Circuit held in March 2025 that authors must be human, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal on March 2, 2026. That question is settled.
Outside the US, the pressure is on the generators rather than on their users. On July 31, 2026, the Munich Regional Court held for GEMA against Suno: training on protected songs, keeping them in the model, and the outputs all infringed. Suno is appealing. The EU AI Act's labeling and training-transparency duties took effect on August 2, 2026. In the US, the NO FAKES Act of 2026 cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in June and has not had a floor vote. None of this changes the rule above: what you wrote is yours.
A song, piece by piece
| Protectable? | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| Lyrics you wrote | Yes | Ordinary human authorship |
| Melody you wrote | Yes | Same, even if AI performs it |
| Your arrangement and edits | Yes, if creative enough | Selection and modification count |
| A chord progression alone | Rarely | Common building blocks |
| AI vocal performing your melody | The composition stays yours | The underlying work is what you wrote |
| Track generated from a prompt | No | Prompts are not authorship |
What the generators' terms say
Service terms decide what you may do; they cannot create copyright. Suno: on paid plans, Suno's terms assign you Suno's rights in your outputs, while stating plainly that Suno makes no warranty "that any copyright will vest" in them. On the free tier, Suno keeps ownership and you get personal, non-commercial use with attribution. Udio: since the Universal Music settlement, downloads are disabled; creations stream inside Udio's platform only. AIVA keeps the copyright on its lower tiers and sells full ownership on Pro. Read the terms of the service you use, because they differ.
Write the melody and the lyrics
A melody and lyrics you write are yours before any model touches them, and an AI voice singing that melody changes who wrote it as little as hiring a singer would. Mozarella is built that way: you write the score, and the vocal sings it.
If you plan to release
- Keep dated drafts: lyrics, MIDI, project files, stems
- Note which parts were generated and which you wrote or edited
- Disclose AI-generated portions if you register with the USCO
- Check the generator's terms before commercial use
- When the release depends on it, ask a lawyer
Copyright belongs to the person who wrote the melody and lyrics, so a prompt does not make you the author and a model cannot own it.
Common questions
Can I copyright a song I generated with Suno?
The purely generated audio, no. The US Copyright Office holds that prompts alone are not authorship, no matter how many times you rerolled. Parts you wrote (your lyrics, a melody you fed in) and your creative selection or editing of outputs can be protected, and must be identified when you register.
Do I own a song if AI sings a melody I wrote?
The composition, yes. A melody and lyrics you wrote are your work in the ordinary way, and an AI performing them does not change who wrote them, any more than hiring a session singer would.
Is AI-generated music public domain then?
Effectively, purely AI-generated material has no US copyright owner, though a service's terms may still bind you contractually, and the question is unsettled in some other countries. Contract rights and copyright are different things.
Do I have to tell the Copyright Office about the AI parts?
Yes. Applicants have a duty to disclose AI-generated content in a work submitted for registration and to describe the human contributions.
Related
- Suno alternatives for people who want to write the song (2026)Generators, then the tools where you write the chords, melody, and lyrics.
- Best royalty-free music sources in 2026Nineteen sources by license type: what happens when you cancel, and how claims get cleared.
- Royalty-free music vs making your ownWhat the subscription costs, what canceling leaves you, and when writing the cue is cheaper.
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