Jason Isbell, David Lowery and two other musicians file proposed class action against Suno over artists' names, voices and identities

What happened

Jason Isbell, David Lowery, Guy Forsyth, and Eduardo Calle filed a proposed class action against Suno in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts on August 31, 2026, alleging the platform exploits musicians' names, voices, and identities without consent. The 84-page complaint contains no copyright claim.

Details

• The case is Lowery et al v. Suno, Inc., No. 1:2026cv14005. The complaint alleges Suno "built and trained a model to index musicians by name," encoding musicians' identities into its AI model, and lets users type a musician's name to create "a musician-based channel with a song, description, and graphic invoking the musician's identity."
• It accuses Suno of capturing and storing "voiceprints" — defined as "the unique identifying characteristics of an individual's voice that can be used to identify that person" — and argues there is no reason the model would have awareness of such identity features unless trained to.
• As an example, the complaint says entering "jason isbell" produced an Americana song called "Paper Bell" with Isbell's "characteristic clear male vocals and country twang," with artwork depicting a rural church scene.
• The musicians seek unspecified damages and a court order barring Suno from using artists' identities without authorization. Suno disputes the claims, saying the platform is designed to create original music, removes names when prompts reference specific musicians, and uses safeguards to reduce unauthorized reproductions.

Boundary

These are allegations in an active case; nothing has been proven. This case's theory (publicity rights, identity, biometrics) is separate from the copyright suits Suno faces.