Newly uncovered hacked files reportedly reveal that Suno, a prominent AI music generator, has extensively utilized copyrighted audio from various protected online platforms over several decades. This revelation comes to light through data obtained in a recent hacking incident, exposing Suno's training methodology.
According to reports from 404 Media, the AI model was trained by systematically scraping millions of songs and lyrics from well-known online audio platforms, including YouTube Music, Deezer, and Genius. This disclosure offers a rare insight into Suno's data acquisition practices, particularly as the company has historically refrained from detailing the contents and origins of its training datasets.
This information is particularly pertinent given that Suno is currently embroiled in multiple lawsuits alleging the unauthorized use of copyrighted material for its AI model training. In a significant case brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Suno openly acknowledged training on copyrighted content, asserting that doing so, particularly with publicly available music files from the open internet, falls under the legal doctrine of fair use. Beyond the fair use debate, an amendment filed by the RIAA last year further alleges that Suno deliberately circumvented YouTube's copyright protections through intentional "stream ripping" of tracks.
Materials provided to 404 Media by the hacker, identified as "ellie.191," reportedly corroborate these allegations. The data package includes Suno's source code from 2023 and 2024, along with explicit scraping instructions targeting audio files from YouTube Music, Deezer, Genius, Pond5, Jamendo, Freesound, and the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). Additional leaked code suggests Suno engaged a third-party firm, Bright Data, to facilitate music scraping from YouTube, and seemingly sought acapella versions of songs to isolate vocal tracks.
One file specifically for YouTube Music indicates that Suno had processed 2,013,545 YouTube Music clips as of its last update. Another document details that Suno's compiled datasets encompass hundreds of thousands of hours from YouTube Music, thousands of hours from Deezer, Genius, IMSLP, Jamendo, and Pond5, and hundreds of hours of Freesound and MuseScore lyrics. Furthermore, code suggests Suno aimed to download approximately 1 million hours of podcasts using the online tool PodcastIndex.
An unnamed Suno spokesperson, in a statement to 404 Media, reiterated the company's public stance: "As we have stated in public filings and disclosures, Suno’s AI models have been trained on publicly available music files and related metadata accessible on third-party websites on the open Internet."
The hacker also gained access to Suno customer information, which included email addresses, phone numbers, and Stripe payment details. Several customers contacted by 404 Media confirmed their subscription to the service and stated that Suno had not notified them of any security breach.
In response to the security incident, a Suno spokesperson informed 404 Media that the company became aware of the breach in November 2025 and swiftly contained the situation. The spokesperson added, "At the time, we immediately conducted an investigation and verified that the incident primarily involved outdated source code that is no longer in use at Suno and that no sensitive personal information was compromised. Importantly, Suno does not have access to customers’ full credit card numbers in Stripe. Based on the limited nature of the customer information believed to be involved, we determined that individual notifications were not warranted under applicable privacy laws."
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