Elvis Presley music rights holders sue Anthropic for unauthorized use of 274 songs to train model
Authentic Brands Group, the rights holder for Elvis Presley's music and likeness, has sued Anthropic, alleging that it used 274 Elvis songs without permission to train AI models and seeking $150,000 per song, totaling about $41 million. The complaint was filed on Friday, and the songs involved include Can't Help Falling in Love, All Shook Up and A Little Less Conversation. Musicians have repeatedly expressed concern that their works and voices are being used by AI models without authorization, and Spotify said last week that over the past year it has removed about 50 million songs deemed AI slop from its recommendations.
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The lawsuit ties the training data copyright dispute to specific tracks and damages amounts, offering a window into how music rights holders and AI companies are maneuvering against each other.
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The owners of Elvis Presley’s music catalogue are suing artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic for allegedly using Presley’s songs to train their models without permission.
Authentic Brands Group, the licensing organization that has ownership of both Presley’s music and likeness, is accusing Anthropic of infringing on the rights of 274 songs by Presley. The lawsuit, first reported by Billboard, was filed on Friday.
It further accuses Anthropic of utilizing 274 of Presley’s songs to train its AI model. These works include Can’t Help Falling in Love, All Shook Up and A Little Less Conversation. The plaintiffs are seeking $150,000 per infringed track, or about $41m (about £31m).
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AI music platforms work by analyzing large amounts of recorded music in order to learn the sounds, structures and expressions of songs, and then allows users to create their own AI-generated music via text or speech prompts.
Musicians have repeatedly expressed concerns that their music and voices are being used without their permission by AI models, as well as fears that AI-generated “slop” music could replace human-made songs.
Some AI bots have even begun impersonating real living artists on music streaming platforms. Last week, music streaming giant Spotify announced it had removed about 50m songs considered AI slop from its recommendations to users over the past year.