Partly. In the United States, you can copyright the parts of a song that a human wrote, like your own lyrics or melody, but you can’t copyright music that an AI tool generated from a prompt. The U.S. Copyright Office says copyright requires human authorship, and the courts agree. Using AI as a tool while you write doesn’t take away the copyright in what you wrote yourself.
So the answer depends on who did the writing.
This article is general information about U.S. law as of November 2026. It isn’t legal advice. For a specific song, talk to a copyright attorney or contact the U.S. Copyright Office.
What does the U.S. Copyright Office say about AI music?
Copyright protects original expression created by a human author. The Copyright Office has said this plainly in two places.
The March 16, 2023 registration guidance (88 Fed. Reg. 16190) says that when a machine produces the traditional elements of authorship, the Office won’t register that material. The Office compares a prompt to instructions you’d give a commissioned artist. You describe what you want, and the system decides how to express it. That expression isn’t yours.
The January 2025 report, Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability, reached the same place after public comments, including many from the music world. Its main conclusions:
- Existing copyright law can answer AI questions. No new law is needed.
- Using AI to assist human creativity doesn’t remove copyright from the human’s work.
- Human-authored expression in a work that also has AI material can still be protected.
- Purely AI-generated material isn’t protected, and neither is material where the human didn’t control the expressive elements.
- Prompts alone, with today’s tools, don’t give enough control.
- Each work is judged case by case.
The Office has said this could change if future tools give people meaningful control over the expressive choices. Check copyright.gov/ai for updates.
What did the court decide in Thaler v. Perlmutter?
In Thaler v. Perlmutter, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held on March 18, 2025 that the Copyright Act requires a work to be authored, in the first instance, by a human being. The application in that case listed an AI system as the only author of an image.
The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on March 2, 2026. That doesn’t create a new rule about songs that mix human and AI work. It leaves the human authorship requirement in place.
Can you copyright a song you made with Suno or Udio?
It depends on what you wrote and what the tool generated. Most songwriters land in one of these situations.
| What happened | Can you copyright it? |
|---|---|
| You wrote the lyrics and melody, and used AI to hear a rough version | Yes, your song is yours |
| You typed a prompt and the tool made the whole song | No, under current guidance |
| You wrote the lyrics, and AI wrote the music | Your lyrics, yes. The AI music, no |
| You wrote the melody, and AI built the arrangement | Your melody, yes. The AI arrangement, no |
| You meaningfully edited or arranged AI output | Possibly, for your creative changes only |
You wrote the song, and AI helped you hear it
This is where we want every writer to be. You wrote the lyric and the melody, and maybe you used a tool to try a few grooves or to hear a weak line out loud so you could cut it.
The finished song is yours. The Copyright Office’s report says that using AI to brainstorm, or referring to its output without putting it in your work, shouldn’t affect the copyright in what you wrote.
Keep your own lyric drafts and a recording of you singing or playing the melody. Those are the clearest proof of what you wrote.
You typed a prompt and got a finished song
You entered a genre, a mood and a story, and the tool returned a full song: melody, lyrics, vocal and track. Under current guidance, that output isn’t copyrightable.
A longer prompt doesn’t change that. Generating fifty versions and picking your favorite doesn’t change it either. The Office treats that as choosing between outputs the system created, and it has said the time you spend doesn’t create authorship.
You wrote the lyrics, and AI wrote the music
Your lyrics can be protected as a literary work, if you wrote them. The generated melody and track aren’t yours just because your words sit on top. Your protection covers what you contributed.
The reverse works the same way. If you wrote the melody and a tool built the arrangement around it, your melody can be protected. The arrangement the tool invented is a separate question, and you shouldn’t assume you own it.
You edited or arranged the AI output
Creative edits can be protected, but only the material you added. Turning up the volume or picking take three of four doesn’t count.
Selecting and arranging generated pieces into a larger work can sometimes support a claim in that arrangement. In the Zarya of the Dawn comic book decision (February 2023), the Office protected the author’s text and her selection and arrangement of images, while refusing the AI-generated images themselves. Your protection would cover the arrangement. Each generated part on its own stays unprotected.
Do you own the songs you make with Suno?
Ownership under a tool’s terms of service and copyright are two different things.
The terms are a contract between you and the company. A paid plan may let you use the output commercially, and a free plan may not. Plans and terms change, so read the terms for the plan you were on when you made the file.
A company can give you permission to use a file. It can’t create a copyright the law doesn’t recognize. If no human wrote the song, the Copyright Office won’t register it, no matter what the terms say.
Can AI-generated songs earn royalties?
Royalties follow copyright, so a song with no human author has a problem.
In an April 2023 letter to The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), the Copyright Office said musical works without human authorship aren’t eligible for the section 115 blanket license. That’s the license U.S. streaming services use to pay songwriters’ mechanical royalties. A fully generated song may have nothing for The MLC to pay you.
If you wrote the song yourself, you’re on the normal royalty path. We break down that money in how much money you make if someone records your song.
Does re-recording an AI song with human musicians make it copyrightable?
A sound recording and a musical work are separate copyrights. When human singers and players perform a song, their performance creates a sound recording, and that recording can be protected.
A new recording doesn’t change who wrote the song, though. If you wrote the lyrics and melody, a human demo is a recording of your song. If a tool wrote the melody, a human recording is a performance of that generated melody, and it doesn’t turn the melody into something you composed.
So why re-record at all? Because the people you’re pitching want to hear how your song sounds with a real singer, and an AI vocal makes that hard to judge. Plenty of good songs get skipped in the first few seconds for that reason.
That’s what we do at Buy Demo Tracks. Session singers and players record your song from scratch, using your AI version as a reference, and none of the AI audio ends up in the final file. We offer two packages: Instrument + Vocal, which is a lead vocal with one guitar or piano part, and Full Band. You’ll find current pricing and the order form here, or you can check your song first with our free Is Your AI Demo Industry-Ready? checklist, which includes the rights questions to answer before you pitch.
How do you register a song that includes AI?
If your song contains more than a minimal amount of AI-generated material, the 2023 guidance says to:
- Use the Standard Application. The Single Application is only for works one person created entirely.
- List only human authors. Don’t list the AI tool or its company as an author.
- Describe what you created in the “Author Created” field: lyrics, music, a performance, or selection and arrangement.
- Exclude AI-generated material that’s more than minimal. A simple test: if a person had made it, would it be enough to copyright on its own? If yes, disclose it.
- Be accurate. Hiding AI material can lead to a refused or challenged registration. If you already registered without disclosing it, the Office says to file a supplementary registration to correct the record.
Filing fees change, so check the current amount on copyright.gov.
How to protect your songs when you use AI
A few habits make your authorship easy to show:
- Write the lyrics and melody yourself, and treat an AI line as an idea you still have to rewrite.
- Save your drafts with dates. Lyric documents and voice memos show what you created and when.
- Record a simple human version of the song before you mix it with anything generated.
- Register the human-written song with the Copyright Office before you pitch it.
- Write down splits if you co-wrote with other people. (See the pros and cons of co-writing.)
- Tell listeners if AI was used. A pitch that hides it can end a working relationship fast.
Turn your AI demo into a pitch-ready human demo
When your song is written and you’re ready to pitch it, send us your AI version, your final lyrics and the key you want. We’ll record a human-made demo with session singers and players, either Instrument + Vocal (one guitar or piano part) or Full Band.
See current pricing and order your demo, or start with the free Is Your AI Demo Industry-Ready? checklist. Questions about a specific song’s rights belong with a copyright attorney. Questions about getting your song into a singer’s voice can come straight to us at [email protected].
FAQ
Is AI-generated music copyrighted?
Not in the United States, if it was generated from a prompt without enough human control over the expressive elements. Human-written parts of a song, like your own lyrics or melody, can be copyrighted.
Can I copyright a song if AI wrote the lyrics?
You can copyright the music if you wrote it, but not the AI-generated lyrics. On a registration, you’d claim only your music and exclude the AI lyrics.
Can I sell or pitch Suno songs?
The tool’s terms decide what you’re allowed to do with the file, and paid and free plans often differ. Copyright is a separate question, and a fully generated song may not be protected at all.
Do I have to disclose AI when I register a song?
Yes. If the work has more than a minimal amount of AI-generated material, you must disclose and exclude it on the Standard Application.
What happened in Thaler v. Perlmutter?
The D.C. Circuit ruled in March 2025 that a work must have a human author to be copyrighted. The Supreme Court declined to review the case in March 2026, leaving that rule in place.
Is this legal advice?
No. This is general information about U.S. copyright law as of November 2026. For a specific song or contract, talk to a copyright attorney.
Sources
- U.S. Copyright Office, Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence, 88 Fed. Reg. 16190 (March 16, 2023).
- U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability (January 2025).
- Thaler v. Perlmutter, No. 23-5233 (D.C. Cir. March 18, 2025), opinion; cert. denied March 2, 2026, No. 25-449.
- U.S. Copyright Office, Zarya of the Dawn decision (February 21, 2023).