Jamendo Sues Suno, Tidal Demonetizes AI Music, Backstreet Boys Trademark Voices — June 30

Email us hereAI copyright battles are accelerating on multiple fronts, with a new Suno lawsuit, Google staking out a bold fair-use position, and artists turning to trademark law to protect their voices. Tidal meanwhile became the first major DSP to fully demonetize AI-generated music. And Alan Jackson closed out his touring career in style at a sold-out Nissan Stadium. **Lawsuits & AI** • Jamendo Music (Winamp Group) sued Suno in Massachusetts federal court over unauthorized AI training data use. • Artist-attorney Mark Kratter expanded his Spotify complaint, demanding an injunction over alleged indie-artist filtering bias. • UK Court of Appeal dismissed Blur drummer Dave Rowntree's class action against PRS for Music over black box royalties. • Backstreet Boys filed a USPTO sound-mark application to legally protect their voices against AI cloning. • Google published a white paper arguing AI training is fair use and copyright should target outputs, not inputs. **Streaming & Tech** • Tidal will strip royalties from 100% AI-generated tracks, tag them by mid-July, and remove fraud-linked content. • NMPA's David Israelite published May 2026 per-stream songwriter payouts across Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and Amazon. • Madonna previewed Confessions II via a TikTok and iHeartRadio Live Premiere streaming July 2, with London and New York pop-ups. **Live & Touring** • Alan Jackson played his 24-song career finale at sold-out Nissan Stadium, with tributes from George Strait, Luke Combs, and more. • K-pop group Le Sserafim confirmed a return to BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim this September. **Artists & Releases** • Oliver Tree's family launched an artist grant program two weeks after his death, honoring his explicit pre-death wishes. • Lorde released 49 album demos and teased a fan experience project with startup Lume. **International** • Spotify and Vodafone Idea (Vi) launched India's first Spotify-telco partnership, offering 192.8M Vi customers three free Premium months. **Also Today** • Sprite and Genius printed 50 classic hip-hop lyrics on millions of limited-edition cans. • Innovate UK opened a £10M grant competition for creative-tech startups, including music companies. Five minutes, six categories, zero fluff.