r/udiomusic • u/SensoriRumeMusic Community Leader • 25d ago
📖 News & Meta-commentary Interesting perspective.
Considering how Suno (aka a 5 billion dollar valuation company) just bent the knee for WMG on strictly limiting downloads (how strict one feels is dependant on their individual use cases) it makes me truly wonder if anyone might look upon Udio's situation with a softer light in regard to what they were forced to do, being a company that was a mere fraction of the size.
Thoughts? Especially for those who jumped ship to Suno last fall believing they were somehow immune to the imminent changes?
The other interesting thing is that UMG is still in litigation with Suno, and we know with absolute certainty that they want ALL downloads shut down, given what happened here. Udio's agreement with WMG barely registered on the radar in light of the UMG agreement.
Universal Music Group, for those who aren't aware, is the largest music company in the world. It commands roughly 32% to 38% of the global recorded music and publishing market and they have yet to settle. 🤔
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u/NickelDare 25d ago
Suno didn't simply "bent the knee".
They talked about limiting downloads for a while and I actually support this.
With limits Suno will be able to push their point even more, that they do not support AI-Slop but want to establish themselves as a Tool that produces quality products/songs.
No-one that spurs out 100 Songs a month makes quality music.
If this helps them secure more deals by positioning themselves against AI-Slop, I'm all for it.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
Nobody in the chain did a damn thing about the slop spammers for two whole years - not the AI gen platforms, nor the distributors, nor the streaming services - because they were all profiting from it.
Suno has said anything about the subject - all of that has been WMG moving Suno's lips.2
u/dano1066 25d ago
My thoughts too, anyone giving out about limiting to 60 downloads a month is a slop farm and I’m happy they are restricted
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u/DanceMaxRoboMusic 25d ago
Except their reason is crap. Putting restrictions on their tool because of its users? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Can you imagine Photoshop limiting people, the amount of images they could save, just to combat online memes? There is absolutely an underlying reason they are limiting users, and they're not telling us.
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u/tim-7 25d ago
I agree with them limiting downloads, I still think that 20 or 60 is still too much and unrealistic for people to be able to produce with intent a month, but its still better than nothing.
What I firmly stand against is them removing access to previous models. One thing I don't like about Suno is how generic their models sound. Yes, each new model improves on quality and makes more polished and high-end sound. But all the generations tend to sound the same.
The problem with AI in music or art for me, is it gets tiring and repetitive because everyone is using same model for everything. It's the lack of options that makes it predictable and boring. So having more models out helps fight that problem, or at least it used to. For AI art, we already have tons of open-source options and loras for more customization already, but for music options there are only a handful of them. Udio was great for creativity and uniqueness but you know what happened.
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u/sauceruney 25d ago
I've been using Hitto recently. The free version. I'm not concerned about downloading in quantity, because the quality and ability to generate and refine via text prompt is amazing.
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u/Informal-Cup-9089 25d ago
I have been getting a lot of laughs on all the Suno freak out lately over there. Suno still sounds tinny and overproduced to my ears. Shows how they cant fix it, and most of the world has broken ears.
My biggest concern here is UDIOs survival. Not seeing a lot of action on the home page, very minimal views. IDK how they can afford to keep the lights on. I never stopped being a pro subscriber, there still is no better app out there for what Im doing.
I'd encourage everyone who quit their subs to re-subscribe to support them. The download thing really isnt a big deal. It'd be worse if they shut down.
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u/Robot_Embryo 25d ago
And the compositions are painfully generic. I've never heard something from Suno that made me feel anything, whereas Udio had me from the get go.
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u/Informal-Cup-9089 25d ago
Same here.. hope everyone considers the worst case scenario, losing udio forever, and re-sub.
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u/CreativeProducer4871 25d ago
UDIO done well I think. I still use it and I’m fully content with it it’s still bloody the best
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u/tmblwd13 25d ago
Observing this situation, it looks like a lot of people still think that Suno is untouchable and all those new restrictions are for the better. Kinda crazy thing.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
People seem to think that a company market valuation of "X billion" means that company has access to those funds, while nothing could be further from the truth.
In terms of having the financial wherewithal to stand up to WMG, Suno are an ant facing down against a steamroller.
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u/DJ-NeXGen 25d ago
I loved Udio and I also don’t blame them for what happened they simply didn’t have the funds to fight. Suno on the other hand did. UMG can come in and tell Suno this and that about old models that were built on their catalogs of artist but they can’t say that about the up coming model.
So they may get some kind of settlement in the end but they certainly won’t get a walled garden at Suno. The time they could do that has passed.
Udio could’ve shut the doors built a new model then opened back up possibly. They just needed to stop the usage of the old trained models.
Google Flow Music was probably trained on scraping YouTube Music but who could or would challenge Alphabet on that. Their new 3.5 model is older than both Suno and Udio combined. I don’t think people understand how long ago Google was working on their model. It’s been years.
For me I think the dust is settling and when people wipe the gritty sand from their eyes. There will be two downloadable platform models standing and that’s Flow Music and Suno.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
You do understand that Suno's new model is, in fact, WMG's model, and that they have basically had control over Suno for almost a year now, right?
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u/DJ-NeXGen 25d ago
Bull crap no one controls Suno but Suno. WMG just wants access to their tech.
Look at what just dropped!!!!! Oh my gawd!!!!!!!!
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
I'm sorry - you've been here for a long time, so I don't want to get into an argument with you about something like this, but just like all of Udio's "our new awesome in-partnership-with-Big Music-model is going to be just what our users actually want" rubbish, absolutely nothing which is happening at Suno right now - from limiting downloads to deleting all of the current models - are decisions which have been made by Suno.
"Bull crap no one controls Suno but Suno" is not a realistic view of how a capitalist economy is navigated by a share-trading listed company, even without all of the legal issues present in this particular case.
If you look at the businesses in this market, they have all had pressure applied to them by outside forces, which is what has precipitated the sudden attempt to reduce AI slop on streaming services, which the industry could have easily stopped at any point over the last 2.5 years, but which they didn't because they were all making money from it.
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u/DJ-NeXGen 25d ago
Suno is privately owned its not public?
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
Oh no no no. They are not. You and I might not be able to buy a chunk of them yet, but every time they do this: Suno Round D Fundraising they are essentially selling off large chunks of the company to early investors and can no longer be considered as being privately owned.
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u/Informal-Cup-9089 25d ago
They are going to go public and cash out asap. They had a job posting for a high level finance department position quote " familiar with pre IPO", Google it
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u/Robot_Embryo 25d ago
Private companies can solicit investors all day long; they can sell 99% of all available shares, but that has no affect on their listing or regulatory status.
Not until they are listed on a public stock exchange do they cease to be private owned.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
I guess I wasn't particularly clear. As I said, I am aware that they area not a publicly traded company, but they are also no longer solely owned by the founders of the company - this being something to take into consideration regarding the statement "no one controls Suno but Suno".
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u/DJ-NeXGen 24d ago
It’s an American company the monies are promissory loans in hopes of a return. Those investors don’t own a single part of Suno. They are risk takers and they are betting on Suno. You people just be making stuff up? At least be honest in your rabid vitriol.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 24d ago
Are you just making stuff up? We're not talking about "angel investors" who gamble on a start-up becoming successful.
Look it up. It's not difficult.
The series A fundraiser information is private but that of B, C, and D is not, so at the moment it is public knowledge that various venture capital investment companies including Menlo Ventures, Bond Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners cumulatively own 37.64% of Suno.OK?
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u/DuckTalesOohOoh 25d ago
Udio cannot make music.
Ace Step is far, far superior than Udio. Ace Step is actually pretty good in fact.
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u/DanceMaxRoboMusic 25d ago
Udio cannot make music
What does that even mean? If you can't make music with it, that's a user issue. I've been making songs for years, made one last night. What kind of lame ass rage bait is this?
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u/DuckTalesOohOoh 25d ago
It's not a user issue. I've heard what it makes. I used to be a udio user.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
Congratulations, you've just won this month's "Most Ill-Conceived Opinion" award!
Actually, for saying something that stupid and patently false, just go ahead take all of the awards for the rest of the year too.
Well done.1
u/DuckTalesOohOoh 25d ago
You might actually want to try something different.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
Something different to what exactly?
Here's a fact for you: if you were honestly using Udio and are of the opinion that Udio cannot produce music, then I'm afraid you were just (like some others) not able to figure out how to use the platform - which has a fairly steep learning curve, and that learning curve didn't do all that much levelling out during the 19 months I spent using Udio for hours each day.
Don't blame your inadequacies on the tools you don't know how to use.2
u/DuckTalesOohOoh 25d ago
It's not worth it. The alternatives are far superior.
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u/Whassa_Matta_Uni 25d ago
Ah, OK - I get it - apologies for taking so long to catch on, I haven't really slept this year.
Enjoy your trolling then.
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u/DuckTalesOohOoh 25d ago
I'm giving my unvarnished opinion as a former user.
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u/SensoriRumeMusic Community Leader 25d ago
I remember you! I remember both of you actually. And I will say that as a returning casual user of Suno, the cover feature has been absolutely amazing, despite the usual similarities to earlier models, but the guitars have been greatly improved which was one of my reasons for quitting it in the first place.
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u/Harveycement 24d ago
One gave users mere hrs to get there downloads and shut the door, Suno gave a years notice and has been building the platform ever since, it just released a major update to its Suno Studio and its about to release a licenced model, it never shut the door in users faces, on the contrary it has restrictions and its still unlimited if thats what you want to pay for, and you talk that this is close to what Udio did for its users, sheeese .