Ask who owns an AI-generated song and you will hear confident answers in both directions. The truth is that two different questions are being mixed. One is contractual: what the tool's terms let you do with the song. The other is legal: whether copyright law recognises anyone as the author of AI output. For most creators the first decides day-to-day use, and the second matters mainly if someone copies your song. This article explains both. It is general information, not legal advice; for a specific deal or dispute, speak to a lawyer.
A song has several layers
Copyright does not treat a song as one thing. The lyrics are a literary work. The melody and arrangement are a musical work. The recorded audio is a sound recording. Each can have a different owner, and each can be more or less human-made.
With Autunes, the layers often split in a useful way. If you write your own lyrics, those are your original writing and protected like any poem you write, whether or not AI sings them. The music and the recorded audio are generated by Autunes. Their copyright status is where the law is unsettled.
What Autunes's terms give you
The Autunes Terms of Service set out what you get, as far as Autunes is concerned.
- You keep ownership of the prompts and lyrics you submit.
- Once you have bought a Pro or Creator pass, every song in your account belongs to you, including songs you made earlier on the Free plan.
- A single-song licence (₹9 in India, priced locally elsewhere) makes that song yours.
- To the fullest extent the law allows, Autunes assigns its rights in that generated audio to you.
- You may use those songs commercially without limit, including YouTube and Instagram monetisation, ads, films, games, podcasts, client work and sync licensing, and release them through any distributor.
- No royalty, revenue share or credit requirement.
- Free-plan songs you have not licensed are for personal, non-commercial use, and Autunes may feature them on its platform and in its own promotion.
What the law says, country by country
United States: the US Copyright Office has said that copyright protects only material with human authorship, and it refuses to register works generated entirely by AI. Courts have backed this, most visibly in the Thaler v. Perlmutter case. The Office's guidance also says that human contributions, such as your own lyrics or a creative selection and arrangement of material, can be protected even when AI generated other parts, and that prompts alone are generally not enough.
India: the Copyright Act, 1957 already has a provision for computer-generated works. For a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work that is computer-generated, it names the author as the person who causes the work to be created. Whether that covers modern generative AI, and who that person is when you type a prompt, has not been settled by Indian courts. The UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has a similar computer-generated works rule, and it is also under review.
The practical result: in most places you can rely on the rights your tool assigns you and on copyright in your own lyrics, but you should not assume the generated melody and audio carry the same protection as a fully human recording everywhere.
Why the contract matters more day to day
When you upload to YouTube, release on Spotify or deliver to a client, nobody asks for a copyright registration certificate. What matters is that you have the right to use the song and that nobody else has a better claim. Autunes's assignment covers the first. Because Autunes takes no royalty and needs no credit, there is no second party who can stop your use of a song you own.
Where unsettled copyright can bite is enforcement. If someone re-uploads your AI-generated track, your claim is strongest on parts with human authorship, such as your lyrics, and on the evidence that you made it first.
Practical steps to protect your songs
A few habits put you in a much stronger position if a dispute ever comes up.
- Write your own lyrics where you can. They are clearly your work.
- Keep your drafts, prompts and lyric files with their dates.
- On paid plans, keep the creation proof each song carries: an audio fingerprint and creation time you can show to platforms or distributors.
- Use a paid plan or the ₹9 licence before any commercial use.
- Be careful with automated claiming systems such as YouTube's Content ID. AI songs can sound alike, and many distributors have their own rules about enrolling AI tracks, so read yours first.
- In India, copyright exists without registration, but registering your lyrics with the Copyright Office is available if you want formal evidence.
Limits you should know about
Owning the output does not override other people's rights. If you upload someone else's recording to remix it, you need their permission; Autunes asks you to confirm you own the audio or have the rights. Lyrics copied from a film song remain the original writer's work. Using a famous artist's name or claiming the music is human-made breaks the Terms.
The Terms also note that Autunes cannot guarantee generated content will be unique or unlike existing works. Listen critically, and if a melody sounds very close to a known song, make a variation before you release.
When to get proper legal advice
For everyday creator use, the steps above are enough. Speak to a lawyer before signing a label or publishing deal for AI-assisted songs, before a large ad or film sync where the client asks for warranties about copyright, or if you want to take action against someone who copied your track.