Suno, the AI music startup currently in a legal battle with major record labels alongside its rival Udio, is foraying into the digital audio workstation (DAW) market with its acquisition of WavTool.
Suno announced the acquisition on Thursday (June 26), a day after its rival Udio released a visual editing workstation for AI-generated music.
Suno’s acquisition of WavTool integrates the latter’s browser-based DAW technology into Suno’s existing AI music generation platform.
In a press release announcing the acquisition, Suno described WavTool as “the first browser-based DAW to combine professional-grade music production features” like VST plugin compatibility, sample-accurate editing, and live recording.
WavTool has integrated AI capabilities including stem separation and automated MIDI generation. It also operates an in-app chatbot for real-time music editing.
“We’re finding that many of Suno’s early adopters are professional songwriters and producers who are seeing immense value in integrating AI into their creative process.”
Mikey Shulman, Suno
The deal follows Suno’s release of a new set of upgrades earlier this month, including the ability to upload up to 8 minutes of audio, replace lyrics, rework sections, and remix ideas.
Discussing the Wavtool acquisition, Mikey Shulman, CEO and co-founder of Suno, said: “We’re finding that many of Suno’s early adopters are professional songwriters and producers who are seeing immense value in integrating AI into their creative process.”
“Our ultimate goal is to empower musicians, build tools that amplify human creativity and open up access to making great music. By bringing in WavTool’s elite DAW technology, and their team of experts, we’re in a position to better deliver on our mission.”
Following the acquisition — financial terms of which were not disclosed — WavTool’s team will join Suno.
Sam Watkinson, co-founder and former CEO of WavTool, said: “Once we came to understand how Suno operates, and how aligned the Suno team is with our vision for AI in the music creation process, we knew joining forces was the right move.”
“Once we came to understand how Suno operates, and how aligned the Suno team is with our vision for AI in the music creation process, we knew joining forces was the right move.”
Sam Watkinson, Wavtool
“It’s a great privilege to be part of a team with such deep passion for music and a shared commitment to advance the future of music production – I can’t wait to show off what we’ve been building together.”
Suno raised $125 million in funding in the spring of 2024 from a variety of tech companies and venture capital funds, valuing the company at $500 million.
The acquisition of WavTool comes afer the DAW market was valued at $4.1 billion in 2024, and is forecast to reach $6.65 billion by 2032, according to data from Grand View Research.
Players in the field – for users of varying expertise – include Apple’s GarageBand, Adobe, BeatConnect, BandLab, and Avid Technology.
On Monday (June 23), music creation platform Splice announced that it has integrated its sample library with Avid’s Pro Tools DAW.
Suno’s entry into the DAW market comes as its co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman suggested in a Rolling Stone article last year that, in the future, a billion people paying $10 per month (that’s $120 billion a year, all told) could be creating songs with Suno.
Also last year, Suno said it planned to pay $1 million between May 2024 and December 2024 to creators making music on its platform, starting with a tranche of $100,000 paid out to the 500 highest-ranked tracks made publicly available on the Suno platform in June 2024.
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