The AI music generator’s latest update lets musicians shape songs with their own vocals and instrumentals, potentially helping real artists.

Suno’s v4.5+ update

Suno’s latest update adds more ways for artists to get creative. Known for sparking controversy over fully AI-generated music, the company is now rolling out features that seem designed to support musicians rather than sideline them.

So, what’s new?

The new v4.5+ update builds upon the latest version launched in May. This version introduced more realistic generated vocals, extended track length, better audio quality and more creative control.

Suno is giving artists more control over their creative process. Most notably, it now allows users to upload their own vocals or instrumentals before using Suno’s AI to build the rest of the sound around them. Instead of creating wholly AI-generated tracks, artists could use this to launchpad their own ideas and create their own instrumentals. Even for those who are skeptical of AI in music, the ability to generate an instrumental tailored to your own vocals could unlock new creativity for real artists.

“We’re introducing new workflows that change how music gets made. This isn’t a minor upgrade; it’s a glimpse: more people making more music, with better tools, in more intuitive ways.”

Mikey Shulman, Suno CEO via Music Ally

Another new addition, called Inspire, controversially lets users generate songs based on the vibe of a playlist. While sounding like a fun idea, it only raises fresh questions around copyright as Suno’s model will be using copyrighted material to generate a new track.

Still in the eye of the storm

Speaking of controversy, Suno has been at the heart of it ever since it launched. It first drew attention for generating songs that closely resembled copyrighted tracks, raising questions as to whether it trained its model on copyrighted material without permission. Lawsuits from major labels followed, and Suno all-but-admitted to using copyrighted material to train its model. More recently, the collecting society GEMA and a musician fighting for independent musicians have also taken action.

Musician brings the fight to Suno and Udio for indie music

What lies ahead?

The company has since appointed a new Chief Music Officer Paul Sinclair, who has two decades of industry experience, including senior roles at Atlantic Records and Warner Music Group. With licensing talks allegedly underway with major labels, it will be interesting to see whether Suno leans into more ethical AI practices.

Major record labels reportedly in licensing talks with Suno and Udio

While the legal and ethical debates aren’t going away anytime soon, Suno’s recent moves appear to be going in the right direction. Ultimately, this could be good news for real artists in an age when most discourse focused on them being replaced by AI.

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