Suno Hits $300 Million in Revenue and 2 Million Subscribers as Former Merlin CEO Joins the AI Music Giant
Suno, the generative AI music platform at the center of the music industry's most contentious copyright debate, has reached 2 million paid subscribers and $300 million in annual recurring revenue, co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman confirmed on LinkedIn in late February. The announcement, reported by TechCrunch (February 27, 2026), Billboard, and The Hollywood Reporter, marks a staggering growth trajectory: Suno's paid user base doubled from 1 million subscribers in November 2025 to 2 million in just three months, while revenue jumped 50% from $200 million ARR to $300 million ARR over the same period.
The revenue milestone arrived alongside a personnel move that sent shockwaves through the independent music community. Suno named Jeremy Sirota, the former CEO of Merlin, as its new Chief Commercial Officer, as Music Business Worldwide reported (February 24, 2026). Sirota spent six years leading Merlin, the digital licensing partner for independent labels and distributors, where he scaled annual revenue from $900 million to $1.8 billion and negotiated licensing agreements with Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Meta, and other major platforms.
Over 100 million people have now used Suno in total. The platform generates approximately 7 million tracks per day, according to industry estimates. The company raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.45 billion post-money valuation in November 2025, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Why the Sirota Hire Stings for Independent Artists
The appointment of Sirota carries a particular irony that has not gone unnoticed in the independent music community. During his tenure at Merlin, Sirota publicly championed the rights of independent artists against unauthorized AI use. In a widely cited statement opposing the UK government's proposed AI training exemption, Sirota declared that independent music is "not raw material for tech companies to exploit without consent," as Complete Music Update reported.
Now Sirota will lead commercial strategy, music industry relationships, and platform partnerships at a company that major record labels and independent artists alike have sued for allegedly training its AI models on copyrighted music without permission. The RIAA filed landmark copyright infringement cases against both Suno and Udio in June 2024, with the major labels seeking $150,000 per infringed track. While Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group reached settlements with both Suno and Udio in late 2025 that included licensing deals for new, authorized AI models, Sony's case remains active, and independent artist class actions led by Anthony Justice and 5th Wheel Records are still pending, as Billboard reported.
The Independent Artist Gap in AI Licensing Deals
The settlement pattern reveals a troubling asymmetry. The major labels secured licensing agreements that give their artists the option to participate (and be compensated) when Suno and Udio launch new, licensed AI models in 2026. Independent artists, however, have no equivalent deal structure in place.
Artist rights groups responded sharply. An open letter titled "Say No to Suno," released in late February 2026, accused the company of building its business by "scraping the world's cultural output without permission, then competing against the very works exploited," as Digital Music News reported (February 24, 2026). The letter directly challenged Suno's legal position that its AI outputs are "entirely new sounds" that do not infringe existing copyrights.
Meanwhile, the US Copyright Office has maintained that generative AI outputs are largely ineligible for copyright protection, creating a paradox for independent artists: the music they create using human skill and judgment is copyrightable and vulnerable to AI training, while the AI-generated output that competes with their work may not be copyrightable at all.
The Scale of the AI Flooding Problem
Suno's output volume compounds existing discovery challenges for independent artists. The platform's 7 million daily track generations contribute to a broader wave: Luminate's 2025 Year-End Report found that an average of 106,000 new tracks were delivered to streaming services daily in 2025, with an estimated 60,000 of those being wholly AI-generated. Music streaming platforms now host 253 million tracks in total, yet just 0.2% of available tracks account for nearly half of all global streams.
The streaming fraud dimension is equally concerning. Deezer has reported that it deems 85% of fully AI-generated tracks on its service to be fraudulent, as Digital Music News reported. For independent artists already struggling for playlist placement and algorithmic visibility, the flood of AI-generated content represents a direct competitive threat to their streaming income.
What Independent Artists Should Do Now
Independent artists should register their works with all relevant collection societies and ensure metadata is comprehensive and accurate; clean data is the first defense against unauthorized AI training claims. Artists should review any opt-in or opt-out mechanisms available through their distributors or collecting societies related to AI licensing, particularly the Merlin and ElevenLabs AI deal that allows participating indie artists to opt in or out. Independent artists considering any AI music tools should understand that outputs may not qualify for copyright protection under current US Copyright Office guidance, limiting their commercial value. Artists and labels should support industry organizations like A2IM, Merlin, and their local collecting societies that are actively negotiating AI licensing frameworks on behalf of independents.
Key Questions for Independent Artists
Are my songs being used to train Suno's AI models?Suno has not disclosed its complete training data, and the ongoing lawsuits allege that copyrighted music from both major-label and independent catalogs was used without permission. If you released music through any distributor, your recordings may have been accessible to AI scraping. The independent artist class action led by Anthony Justice is seeking clarity and damages on this issue.
Will independent artists get licensing deals like the majors did?No equivalent deal exists yet. Warner and Universal negotiated settlements that include licensing arrangements for new authorized AI models, but these cover only their own catalogs. Merlin previously negotiated an AI licensing deal with ElevenLabs that gives indie artists opt-in and opt-out rights, but no comparable deal with Suno is publicly in place for the independent sector.
Could Suno's new "licensed models" help independent artists?Suno has stated it will launch new models in 2026 built on licensed content, phasing out current models. Whether independent artists will be included in or compensated through these new models depends on licensing negotiations that have not yet been announced for the indie sector. Sirota's appointment as CCO may signal that Suno intends to pursue indie licensing, but no commitments have been made public.
Should I use AI music tools for my own releases?The US Copyright Office has indicated that AI-generated outputs are generally not eligible for copyright protection. This means you may not be able to claim ownership over AI-generated elements of your music. If you use AI as one tool in a substantially human-driven creative process, some elements may still be protectable, but the legal landscape remains unsettled.
Today's Indie Radar
Warner Music Group posts $1.84 billion in Q1 revenue, with subscription streaming up 10.9%. WMG reported a 10% year-over-year revenue increase for its fiscal first quarter of 2026, driven by a 14.3% rise in subscription streaming revenue (10.9% in constant currency), as The Hollywood Reporter reported (February 2026). The company gained approximately 1 percentage point of US streaming market share, and total adjusted OIBDA increased 22%. For independent artists, the major labels' continued streaming growth underscores the importance of optimizing release strategies and playlist pitching to compete for streaming revenue in an expanding market.
Sony Music acquires French indie label Spookland, deepening major-indie convergence. Sony Music Group France acquired Spookland, the independent label behind Jain and other French artists, with the label continuing operations under a new banner, Bleu Revolver, as Digital Music News reported (February 19, 2026). The acquisition continues a pattern of major labels absorbing successful indie operations, raising questions about whether truly independent infrastructure can survive at mid-tier scale. Independent labels should evaluate their long-term positioning and consider whether cooperative structures or strategic alliances might offer alternatives to acquisition.