It's been a real "It's easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission" for Udio and Suno the last few weeks. I don't understand all the new developments, but it looks like you will not be able to have much use case for either app going forward, without paying a subscription. Apparently you will be able to create songs but not download them and only be able to listen to them on platform. From what I understand by paying for a subscription they will be able to licence your creations more in tune with how they licence real songs, so I get; but......... As if they didn't have this in mind from the beginning. To me I think they possibly colluded with the large record companies from the beginning so they could create their paid solutions and strengthen the power of the giant 3 labels Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Group (SMG), and Warner Music Group (WMG). I think they wanted more control and avoid another Napster situation. What is very interesting is though, when I use other apps like Caption App to edit my shorts, I have the option of using the built in Elevenlabs. So my subscription allows an API to other image and audio apps to create within Caption. It's limited in what you can prompt, but for my use case, it works really well. It's nuts how apps are integrating with other apps to become more powerful creation tools. I noticed this with Canva lately as well. In the next year I see creators being able to totally customize each subscription to get the maximum use case and features possible for their needs. I think most serious production houses already are, and I'm just barely staying caught up. However for my son's youtube channel, I'm not sure what I'm going to use now to get background tunes for his videos now that Udio isn't going to be free anymore. @Max Frey what are you using right now for your pizza tunes? My vision for this group was to turn it into a full production house with full service audio and visual services, but we'll see where the group is headed. I also wanted to harken back to the freedom sound idea, of having a place where songwriters can develop songs and get help from experienced writers. Using Ai as a tool not a crutch.

So this just happened yesterday. Looks like anything that i haven't perviously downloaded is now unavailable to download for free user accounts until nov.3. Wow. Check out the screen shot. Technology and copyright use claims are moving so fast. My prediction is the same will happen for Suno as they are tied into the same lawsuits with the 3 largest record labels. Interesting times.

So I've been keeping a close eye on all the major Ai music generating platforms, and I have to admit; It's hard to keep up. Elevenlabs started as an AI voice clone but now has music generating tools. The three top dogs IMO are still Udio, Suno and Elevenlabs. And what frustrates me the most as a creator using AI is all 3 platforms have there own strengths and weaknesses. Same with AI Video. I'm guessing in another year they will have battled it out for supremacy combined with any legal battles (udio/suno) and solid use case profiles will be more determinable to the creator. Cause there ain't no way I'm paying for 3 pro subscriptions. Plus any video tools I may want. GEEZUZ! Here is a comment I found comparing features from E-Labs and Suno which I thought was fitting for this post: (I'll link the video I'm referencing as well) I'll put an * for what is important features and weaknesses for my use cases. Better than Suno, Yes and No. It depends. Yes because: Better Audio Quality (44.1kHz, 128-192kbps) *** Can understand Key, Tempo and Time Signatures **** Can create pure Voice only Acapellas. (Suno can't) meh Best Instrumental quality. (You can literally download it and sell it as loops/samples). ** Can make ambient music with sound effects. *** Chat with AI to make changes. *** Change the original song to any language. Better editing features. **** Not trained on copyrighted content. (Artists were Paid for training). **** Great for a first version. Suno was horrible even until V3. No because: Boring songs, No creativity No upload option yet. (TBD) Cant use own audio ***** No Persona feature to keep same singer *** Very expensive **** Too Many restrictions. **** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfSo1V0qeGM

digging around in the help section on udio I found this. https://help.udio.com/en/articles/10739216-answers-to-common-usage-questions suno does not grant you ownership on what you create on the free plan but does on the paid plan. udio looks at it a bit differently and does not claim ownership on your creations but leaves you the burden of proof for full ownership on the free plan, as far as I can tell they do not have a different take on ownership to their paid plans and only upgrades on the features. I find this interesting as obviously there is not a lot of copyright holder precedent for Ai music yet, (ie how is it trained, does it train on user input/output - i would say yes they do) but I wonder who has set themselves up for less trouble for copyright claims going fwd. it's funny that the 2 biggest Ai music companies (so far) have an opposite approach to ownership. if i was to use suno going fwd I would probably go straight to a paid plan just to avoid any videos I use it for being muted. (great marketing Suno!)

Max and I dive in to Udio to make some "Pizza Rock".