Music Publishers’ Anthropic Lawsuit Extends Mediation Deadline

Are music publishers and Anthropic inching towards a settlement in their ugly copyright confrontation? Time will tell, but they’ve reached an early agreement concerning an initial Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) session.

Both the major publishers and the AI giant disclosed as much in a new request to the court. In short, the parties are looking to delay a deadline for their opening mediation session from June 30th to August 25th.

As of late, Anthropic and the plaintiff publishers “have been engaged in good faith negotiations regarding selecting a mutually agreeable private mediator,” besides an “agreeable date” for the possible stop on the road to resolution, the same document shows.

With that, the court should sign off on the new ADR date while also leaving the case’s existing deadlines in place, the litigants indicated in many more words.

Of course, this doesn’t mean a settlement is necessarily in the cards. But it’s worth reiterating the reported resolution talks between the major labels and AI music platforms Suno and Udio.

Though a compromise hasn’t officially materialized in either courtroom clash, anonymous sources have suggested that a licensing framework could put the disputes to rest. A truce here would definitely save a significant amount of effort and money – and, more importantly, lay the groundwork for additional AI licensing pacts.

Meanwhile, in the music publishers v. Anthropic case, a discovery marathon has already been dragging on for some time. Like we previously noted, assuming the current schedule moves forward as-is, a trial wouldn’t begin until mid-August 2026. Especially against the backdrop of rapid AI breakthroughs, 14 months (or more) is a sizable window.

On the other hand, drawn-out legal process and possible recorded-side settlements or not, things haven’t exactly been conciliatory in the music publishers’ Anthropic suit. It was only on May 30th that the well-funded AI platform’s counsel took aim at an amended action in clear-cut terms.

The amended suit allegedly “suffers from the same deficiencies as their original complaint, even after over a year of discovery,” Anthropic vented. “For each of their claims other than direct infringement, Plaintiffs rely on conclusory, generalized, or speculative allegations—none of which meets the requirement to plausibly allege the predicate facts associated with those claims.”

Separately, gen AI developers are facing different infringement complaints yet – the most recent of which being a pair of class-actions filed by an indie artist against Suno and Udio.