Elvis and Eminem’s Publisher Just Sued the AI Music App Suno — and Detroit Is in the Middle of It
Two of the biggest names in music history went to war with the same AI company on the same day — and the Detroit connection runs right through the middle of it. On Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, the rights holders behind Elvis Presley and Eminem’s longtime publisher filed separate federal lawsuits against Suno, the AI music generator, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, with the same legal team, Richard Busch of Adams & Reese. They did not file jointly and did not team up — they filed two separate cases on the same day, in the same court.
Elvis Presley in 1970 — photo by Ollie Atkins, White House photographer / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
The Presley suit — case 3:26-cv-13398, a 51-page complaint from Elvis Presley Enterprises, Authentic Brands Group and Raleigh Music Publishing — accuses Suno of copyright infringement and of violating Tennessee’s 2024 ELVIS Act (Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security Act), the law written to stop AI companies from cloning a singer’s voice. It alleges Suno will generate tracks in Presley’s voice even without being asked, and seeks up to $150,000 per wilfully infringed song — up to about $129 million at the maximum — plus treble and punitive damages.
Hours later, Eight Mile Style, the Ferndale, Michigan-based publisher that controls 269 Eminem compositions including “Lose Yourself,” “Without Me,” “The Real Slim Shady,” “Stan” and “Till I Collapse,” filed its own 32-page suit, case 3:26-cv-13399, along with Martin Affiliated. It seeks $40.35 million in statutory damages plus $672,500 for circumventing protections plus $6.725 million for removing copyright information — about $47.7 million in all. Eminem himself is not a plaintiff.
Suno denies wrongdoing, saying its platform “exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone’s name or likeness.”
The filings land on top of an already crowded legal fight. They follow UMG and Sony’s second Suno complaint about two months ago and UMG’s Udio settlement about a week ago, and a German court (GEMA) sided against Suno on July 31, 2026.
Every dollar figure here is what the plaintiffs are asking for, not what a court has awarded. Nothing has been decided, and no court has found Suno did anything wrong. But the message is unmistakable: the music industry’s biggest catalogs are drawing a line around AI, and a Michigan publisher is holding one of the pens.
Sources: MadRobot and Audiartist. Also reported by Variety and Billboard, Nov. 7.
