Warner Music Group told investors on August 5 that its licensing deals with AI music companies should start adding significantly to subscription streaming revenue in fiscal 2027, which begins on October 1, 2026. CEO Robert Kyncl named Suno, Stability AI, KLAY and Udio as the partners behind that forecast, and acting CFO Lou Dickler singled out Suno as the main contributor. Earlier in the year Warner had already told shareholders that Suno would bring material growth in both revenue and profit from fiscal 2027.
The comments came on WMG's fiscal third-quarter call. Subscription streaming grew 11% at constant currency, total revenue rose 9% to about $1.86 billion, and net income was around $204 million, against a loss a year earlier. The results followed CFO and COO Armin Zerza's departure on July 31. Dickler became acting CFO and Tom Corson became COO.
Kyncl said Suno is still on schedule to move to a licensed model later this year, with no change to the timing, though it has not yet shipped a generator trained only on licensed material. He took the Munich court's July 31 ruling that Suno had infringed GEMA's repertoire as support for Warner's approach, and joked that the label was grateful to the court. He compared music's wariness of AI to Hollywood's early fear of television, which faded once Disney partnered with ABC.
Kyncl said protecting artists and songwriters remains Warner's top priority in these deals. He said Warner now has more deals that require fully AI-generated tracks to be flagged and removed from pro-rata royalty pools. Citing Deezer, he said it receives about 90,000 AI uploads a day, over half of all uploads, yet those tracks account for only 1-3% of listening, and earn only a fraction of that. He also welcomed Australia's July decision not to create a copyright exception for AI training.
Warner was the first major to settle with Suno, in November 2025, in a deal that also saw Suno buy Songkick. Warner is still the only major to license Suno. Universal and Sony are still suing it, and Sony has yet to settle with Udio. Suno raised more than $400 million in June at a $5.4 billion valuation and says over 100 million people have used it.
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