Universal and Sony's copyright fight with AI music company Suno has moved to the money behind it. In a filing in federal court in Boston on October 13, 2026, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment opposed a bid by Lightspeed Venture Partners, the lead investor in Suno's Series B round, to quash their subpoena, and asked the court to order Lightspeed to produce documents and sit for a deposition, Music Business Worldwide reported on October 19, 2026.
What the labels are asking for
According to MBW, the labels want a Lightspeed representative to answer questions about the “legal risk of training data,” a subject discussed in a document Lightspeed has already produced in the case. A narrowed version of the subpoena also seeks testimony on the “Risks” listed in that document, specifically “regulation around training data and/or label lawsuits.” Digital Music News reported that the document requests cover business risks tied to Suno's training data and the company's “efforts or failure to license” that data, and that the original deposition topics included due diligence and Lightspeed's “understanding of SUNO's impact or effect on the music industry.” The narrowed version cuts the topics from 20 to 16, MBW said.
The labels' brief says Lightspeed led Suno's US$125 million Series B in May 2024, holds a seat on Suno's board, and kept investing after the lawsuit, in the Series C in November 2025 and the Series D in June 2026. “A company raising capital tells its investors, candidly and in detail, what market it is targeting, whose share it intends to take, how fast it is growing, and what risks, including legal risks, it faces,” the labels argue. They say Lightspeed's files are relevant to Suno's fair use defense and to whether the alleged infringement was willful. Parts of the argument are redacted in the public filing.
Lightspeed's side
Lightspeed, represented by Latham & Watkins, the same firm as Suno, argued in its motion that the subpoena is untimely, repeats its earlier production and is burdensome, according to the labels' brief as described by MBW. DMN reported that Lightspeed called the testimony topics “either already addressed by Lightspeed’s document production or” better suited to Suno itself. Lightspeed produced 152 documents in October 2025 in answer to an earlier subpoena, but that set only ran to June 6, 2025, the labels say. The new subpoena, served on August 24, 2026, seeks material from June 7, 2025, onward.
Lightspeed filed its motion to quash in the Northern District of California on September 16, 2026, according to the labels' filing. It was transferred on October 2, 2026, to the District of Massachusetts, where Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV oversees the labels' 2024 lawsuit against Suno. The labels point to a September 2025 ruling connected to their case against Suno rival Udio, in which a magistrate judge ordered Udio investor Andreessen Horowitz to comply with a similar subpoena. Under a schedule the parties jointly asked the court to approve, Lightspeed could file a reply by October 20, 2026, MBW reported.
The case is one of several. Universal and Sony filed a second lawsuit against Suno on September 18, 2026, and Warner Music Group, originally a co-plaintiff, settled with Suno in November 2025 and signed a licensing deal. MBW also noted that Suno admitted in a September 1, 2026, court filing that it obtained audio from YouTube for use as training data, using a tool called YT-DLP. Suno argues in the case that its training is fair use.