Court clears UMG and Sony to depose ex-Menlo Ventures principal over deleted Suno listening post

What happened

On 26 October 2026, Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson granted Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment leave to serve a deposition subpoena on C.C. Gong, a former Principal at Menlo Ventures, and to depose her within 30 days, Music Business Worldwide reported. Menlo Ventures led Suno's $250 million Series C funding round in November 2025. The order concerns a since-deleted social media post in which Gong wrote that she had "personally shifted most of my listening to Suno" because she was tired of Spotify giving her the same overplayed recommendations.

The case is UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Suno, Inc., No. 1:24-cv-11611, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The labels allege Suno trained its AI music service on their copyrighted sound recordings without permission; Suno argues its outputs are transformative and do not substitute for the labels' recordings.

Why the labels want the deposition

In their unopposed motion, filed 23 October 2026, the labels said Gong's post "bears directly on the effect of Suno on the market for Plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings, and thus on the fourth fair use factor," which asks about the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work under 17 U.S.C. section 107(4). The motion states that Gong previously worked for one of Suno's lead investors and that her statement goes to whether Suno's service substitutes for the labels' recordings.

Background

According to the motion, the labels subpoenaed Menlo Ventures on 20 August 2026 for testimony including Gong's post about shifting her listening from Spotify to Suno. Menlo's counsel said on 24 September that the firm could not obtain the information sought on that topic, and on 12 October told the plaintiffs that Gong had left the firm at the end of September — the first time the plaintiffs were told of her departure, 12 days after the 30 September deadline for fact discovery not implicated by the labels' section 1201 claim. The labels noticed a deposition subpoena to Gong the same day they learned of her departure.

Suno did not oppose the motion. In a statement included in the filing, Suno said it had adhered to the scheduling order's deadlines, believed those deadlines should bind all parties equally, and deferred to the court on whether good cause existed to permit the discovery. Suno took no position on the subpoena's propriety and said it did not intend to limit any objection Gong or Menlo Ventures may raise, including by motion to quash. No deposition has been reported as taken yet; the order allows it within 30 days.