Congress Advances Three Music Bills, UAE Expands Royalty Framework, and Latin American Countries Blocks 317 Piracy Sites
How The Music Business Works - Issue #80
September 24, 2026
Welcome back to How the Music Business Works.
Suno confirmed this week that its v6 model was trained on user creations, just as UMG and Sony filed a second copyright lawsuit asserting over 60,000 recordings.
South Korea's KOMCA reversed its brief experiment with AI-assisted music registration under government pressure, while Washington had a busy week advancing three music bills covering AM radio, ticketing reform, and music tourism.
SoundExchange and the UAE's MusicNation signed a reciprocal royalty agreement, and five Latin American countries joined forces to block 317 piracy sites in Operation LUMEN.
Here’s what you need to know.
The House of Representatives passed two music-related bills within minutes of each other on September 15, and advanced a third out of committee the following day. The American Music Tourism Act, now headed to the President's desk, directs the Commerce Department to promote international travel to music events in the US. The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which passed with 317 cosponsors, would require all cars manufactured or imported into the US to include AM radio, and now heads to the Senate where it already has 60 cosponsors. The MAIN Event Ticketing Act, advanced out of committee, would strengthen existing anti-bot legislation by requiring ticketing platforms to enforce purchase limits with technological security measures and face civil penalties of at least $10,000 per day for violations. The three bills reflect different approaches to music industry regulation, from preserving an aging broadcast medium and updating decade-old consumer protection law to directing federal resources toward economic development. Still stalled in Congress are the TICKET Act, the RAP Act, and the American Music Fairness Act, which would respectively introduce ticket pricing transparency reforms, restrict the use of artists' lyrics as criminal evidence, and require terrestrial radio to pay performance royalties to sound recording rights holders.
SoundExchange and UAE's MusicNation Sign Reciprocal Royalty Agreement
SoundExchange and MusicNation, the United Arab Emirates' recently launched collecting management organization, have signed a reciprocal agreement designed to ensure artists and rights holders are compensated across both markets. Under the deal, SoundExchange artists will be eligible to collect royalties when their music is played in the UAE, while Emirati creators will be compensated for plays in the United States. The agreement also allows SoundExchange to extend UAE royalty collection services to some of its partner CMOs worldwide through their existing agreements. The deal is part of a broader rights infrastructure buildout in the UAE, where MusicNation and non-profit EMRA are both set to begin collecting public performance royalties in December. The rights development is running alongside significant investment in the region's music and entertainment sector, including a forthcoming Sphere in Abu Dhabi and nearly $500 million in fresh funding for Warner Music-partnered FIVE Holdings.
Operation LUMEN Targets 317 Music Piracy Sites Reaching 5.4 Million Visitors Across Latin America
Authorities in Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador are moving to block 317 sites linked to stream ripping and malware distribution in a coordinated action called Operation LUMEN, led by Peru's intellectual property authority INDECOPI and supported by the IFPI. The targeted sites drew an average of 15 million visits per month over the past year, reaching more than 5.4 million unique visitors, with 44 of the sites tied to malware affecting over 4.7 million users. The action follows IFPI research showing that consistent site blocking produces a 15% to 50% increase in visits to licensed music services, and a 3% to 8% rise in visits to paid subscription pages. Operation LUMEN is part of a broader enforcement wave, following similar blocking actions in Canada, Vietnam, and Brazil over the past year. The timing is notable given that Latin America was the fastest-growing recorded music region in 2025, with revenues up 17.1% year over year.
South Korea’s Komca withdrew plans to register AI-assisted music
South Korea's Korea Music Copyright Association has quietly reversed a policy it introduced just weeks ago that allowed the registration of AI-assisted works, returning to a blanket ban on both AI-generated and AI-assisted music. The brief policy window, opened in early August following an audit finding that KOMCA was already paying royalties on AI-assisted works, required human creative primacy and voluntary disclosure of machine assistance. It was shut down after political pressure, including a public rebuke from a National Assembly representative who called out the rule change, and a board vote citing a lack of social and legislative guidance. The reversal cancels registrations finalized during the interim period and comes as AI music gains commercial traction in South Korea, with one AI-assisted track recently cracking Melon's Top 100 chart. KOMCA says it is now working with the government and industry to establish clearer standards, including what it means to be a primary creator.
Suno Confirms V6 Model Was Trained on ‘Creations’ From Users
Suno has confirmed for the first time that its v6 AI music model was trained on "interactions including creations and preference signals" from its user community, alongside licensed content from Warner Music, BMG, and Believe. The admission came in response to a second copyright lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group and Sony Music, which asserts 60,202 sound recordings and argues that v6 is built on the same unlicensed corpus as its predecessors. The labels allege that training a new model on the outputs of an infringing one does not eliminate the infringement but launders it, calling v6 "the fruit of the same poisoned tree.” Suno called the claims "fundamentally flawed on both the facts and the law," framing v6 as a collaborative step forward built in partnership with the music industry. The labels counter that Suno's three licensing deals in under a year prove a functioning market for AI training licenses already exists, undermining its fair use defense. The lawsuit arrives two years after the original action was filed by all three majors, with Warner having since settled and become a licensing partner.
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