AI music startup Suno’s product roadmap continues, despite the company facing a lawsuit from labels. This week the company launched its first mobile app, although for now it’s only available for iOS devices in the US.
The free app enables people to make songs from text prompts and lyrics; record audio with their device to use for a song; and listen to music created by other Suno users.
There are quite a few of those, too. Alongside the app launch, Suno said that its service has been used by 12 million people – up from 10 million in May, when it raised a $125m funding round. The company told users to “stay tuned” for an Android version of its mobile app, as well as a global rollout.
One notable point about the iOS version: it’s using Apple’s in-app purchases system for paid subscriptions, with two tiers costing $10 and $30 a month respectively.
The fact that Suno and Udio (the other startup that labels are suing) have premium tiers is highlighted in the lawsuits. For example, from the complaint against Suno:
“Suno charges many of its users monthly fees to use its product… has monetized its service, charging users up to $24 per month for its highest subscription tier… Suno earns revenue by encouraging users to generate digital music files and exploit them commercially.”
Now Apple will be getting a cut of up to 30% of any of those revenues that come from Suno’s in-app subscriptions on iOS, which certainly adds a little more spice to the situation – as if it needed it…
