Adventures with SUNO
Back in April when I gave the speech about six Lomax women at the 106th Annual Texas Folklore Society Event I visited with Jack Bullet Harris Jr. I met him in 1983 when I became Steve Earle’s manager. Jack was the original drummer for Steve Earle and the Dukes. We kept in touch over the years.
He was more excited than I can ever remember him being and the cause was SUNO. I got pretty buzzed at what he showed me, so we’ve been collaborating on writing songs with this new tool. We’ve already done three and he has several more he’s written himself.
As you may be wondering what is SUNO, here’s the lowdown. SUNO came into being in December 2023 as an AI-assisting songwriting tool.
From their website:
“Suno is building a future where anyone can make great music. Whether you're a shower singer or a charting artist, we break barriers between you and the song you dream of making. No instrument needed, just imagination. From your mind to music”.
They go on to say they are a team of musicians and AI specialists with years of previous experience on various other social media platforms, citing Facebook and Tik Tok. They are based in Cambridge, Massachusetts but no names are given.
OK, what does it do? Send SUNO the words and the musical genre’ and in seconds it will send you back a track with all instruments and a vocalist! Don’t like it? Ask for a different genre’ or genre’ mix and back it will come.
Or just send SUNO some ideas for a song, no lyrics, just thoughts, something like this:
I am working on a song about an albino turtle whose mother was run over by a semi. And, yes, SUNO will return with a song, with instruments and a singer, just like that.
SUNO takes no copyright interest so whoever runs it through and gets the mix becomes the musical creator.
As you can expect, there are major copyright infringement lawsuits based on use of music on existing recordings. You can catch up with the litigation with a quick Google search. See below for links with information about the legal status and more about SUNO.
So now you can become a songwriter and make your own album! Have fun!
Here’s an example, I wrote the words, my wife chipped in, and Bullet worked SUNO to get a mix we felt was good enough to pitch to some Nashville stars. And here it is:
“When Texas Came To Town”