If I write the lyrics and copyright them and use Suno for the Rest?
Q & A
Wes Senter
Last Update 20 hours ago
Am I able to submit the song for sync licensing?
Yes—with an important distinction.
If you wrote the lyrics yourself and then used Suno as a tool to create the music, the answer is often yes, but it depends on the extent of your human contribution.
Here's how it generally breaks down in the U.S.:
In your example
Suppose you:
You would almost certainly own the lyrics. Whether the entire song qualifies depends on whether there is enough human creative contribution beyond simply providing a prompt.
If you want the strongest legal position
A workflow like this is much stronger:
That looks much more like an AI-assisted work rather than a work generated primarily by AI.
For Songwriters Portal
That information could become increasingly important to music supervisors and licensors as industry practices continue to evolve.
If you wrote the lyrics yourself and then used Suno as a tool to create the music, the answer is often yes, but it depends on the extent of your human contribution.
Here's how it generally breaks down in the U.S.:
Your lyrics: If you wrote them, they are your original work and can be protected by copyright.
The musical composition (melody/harmony): If Suno generated it entirely with little or no creative human authorship, current U.S. copyright law may not recognize that AI-generated portion as copyrightable.
BMI registration: BMI has moved toward accepting AI-assisted works that contain meaningful human authorship. Works that are entirely AI-generated are generally not eligible.
In your example
Suppose you:
Write 100% of the lyrics.
Copyright the lyrics.
Put those lyrics into Suno.
Suno creates the melody, music, and vocals.
You would almost certainly own the lyrics. Whether the entire song qualifies depends on whether there is enough human creative contribution beyond simply providing a prompt.
If you want the strongest legal position
A workflow like this is much stronger:
You write the lyrics.
You write or substantially develop the melody (even if you use Suno to help).
A human performs or records the vocals and/or instruments, or you substantially edit and shape the composition.
That looks much more like an AI-assisted work rather than a work generated primarily by AI.
For Songwriters Portal
Register their lyrics with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Register songs with BMI (or ASCAP) only when there is sufficient human authorship.
Keep documentation showing what they personally created versus what AI assisted with.
Be transparent if a song was AI-assisted when required by distributors or licensors.
That information could become increasingly important to music supervisors and licensors as industry practices continue to evolve.