Udio, the AI music startup currently in a legal battle with major record labels alongside its rival Suno, has just released a visual editing workstation for AI-generated music.
The tool called ‘Sessions,’ available Wednesday (June 25) to Standard and Pro-tier subscribers, allows users to manipulate song structures by moving, extending or replacing sections within tracks.
Udio explains in a press release that Sessions automatically identifies musical elements like choruses and bridges from audio waveforms, allowing for the editing of lyrics and sound through a “visual workstation”.
The release comes almost three months after Udio launched two new updates including an AI-powered style reference feature.
The ‘Styles’ feature allows users to generate new music that mirrors the “sonic identity” of existing tracks, while the v1.5 Allegro tool is an update to its existing AI model, which the startup claims is able to deliver “up to 30% faster output with no loss in quality or consistency.”
“We know artists and producers use Udio alongside other tools, often jumping between platforms to shape their sound. We’ve built Sessions to seamlessly integrate into those workflows.”
Andrew Sanchez, Udio
These new features arrive after Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records sued Udio and competitor Suno, alleging both companies trained their AI systems on copyrighted recordings without authorization.
In August last year, Udio and Suno argued that their use of copyrighted materials falls under the “fair use” exemption to US copyright law, and accused the recording companies of launching the lawsuits to prevent competition.
Udio launched publicly in April 2024 with backing from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a Menlo Park, California-headquartered venture capital firm, musician will.i.am, Mike Krieger (co-founder and CTO of Instagram) and Oriol Vinyals (VP of Research at Google’s Gemini). The platform was developed by former researchers at Google DeepMind.
Discussing the launch of ‘Sessions’, Andrew Sanchez, CEO and Co-Founder of Udio, said: “Udio is committed to advancing the next generation of creators. We know artists and producers use Udio alongside other tools, often jumping between platforms to shape their sound. We’ve built Sessions to seamlessly integrate into those workflows, making it easier to visualize, edit, and experiment with tracks in one unified place.”
“Sessions is exactly the solution I’ve been looking for to help bring ideas to life with more precision and flexibility.”
Ian Braunstein, Udio
Ian Braunstein, Udio’s Head of Product, added: “As a musician and producer myself, I’m constantly thinking about what tools would be most helpful in my own creative process.”
“Sessions is exactly the solution I’ve been looking for to help bring ideas to life with more precision and flexibility.
Last week, Udio and Suno were slapped with another legal action by country musician Tony Justice, who filed class-action lawsuits against both AI music generators.
Justice argues that while major labels pursue their own infringement cases, independent artists “whose rights have been trampled the most” remain excluded from “the table, unrepresented, and without a meaningful remedy.”
The artist’s complaint states: “Rather than simply license these copyrighted songs like every other tech-based business does, Suno/Udio elected to simply steal the songs and generate AI-soundalike music at virtually no cost to Suno/Udio.”
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