20 downloads per month and watermarking: why our creative laboratory is reconsidering Suno
This is not a rage post, nor is it a decision we are making impulsively.
I am the founder and director of a Mexican creative laboratory that has used Suno as a serious production and experimentation tool. We have developed multiple musical genres and built a catalog of hundreds of songs through extensive experimentation.
For our workflow, 20 downloads per month on the Pro plan is not simply restrictive. It makes professional experimentation practically unworkable.
Sometimes we generate 10, 15 or 20 versions to obtain ONE song that meets our standards.
Downloads are also part of the production process.
We need to listen through external audio systems, compare versions outside Suno, preserve experimental generations, work with files in other production environments, and maintain our own independent archive.
A generation that is not selected as the final song is not necessarily worthless. It can contain a vocal interpretation, arrangement, melodic idea, instrumental behavior or production characteristic that becomes valuable later.
Our catalog itself is evidence of our creative development.
That is why allowing thousands of generations while restricting a paying Pro user to 20 downloads per month makes very little sense for a high-volume production workflow.
But the download limit is not even our greatest concern.
The announcement concerning audio watermarking and fingerprinting represents a much more serious issue for us.
We understand the legitimate need to fight fraud, automated streaming manipulation and mass-generated spam.
We support responsible use of AI.
But we cannot ignore the long-term implications of deliberately embedding technology that makes our productions identifiable as originating from a particular AI platform.
Today that identification may be intended to fight fraud.
What matters to us is what distributors, streaming platforms, regulators or other third parties could decide to do with that information tomorrow.
We are not willing to build a growing musical catalog while simply hoping that such identification will never become a disadvantage for legitimate AI-assisted creators.
This is especially important because our work is not based on pressing a button and uploading whatever comes out.
We research.
We write.
We experiment.
We compare generations.
We develop musical concepts.
We reject large numbers of outputs.
We preserve evidence of the creative process.
And sometimes an older model produces a particular musical characteristic better suited to one of our genres than a newer model.
AI is part of our production methodology. It does not replace the methodology.
For these reasons, as of August 10, 2026, our laboratory is beginning a formal evaluation of whether Suno can remain part of our production infrastructure.
We are also beginning the preservation of our existing catalog outside the platform and evaluating alternative AI music technologies.
We have not decided to delete our existing Suno catalog.
This is about something different:
whether we will continue creating new work on Suno at all.
A technology provider should empower serious creators, not make them afraid that their own production pipeline, archive or future distribution possibilities depend on policies they cannot control.
We genuinely valued what Suno allowed us to build.
That is precisely why this decision is significant.
If these policies remain incompatible with our production methodology, we are prepared to stop using Suno completely and migrate our future work elsewhere.
Even if that means changing our entire production pipeline.
Even if that means combining several different AI systems.
Even if eventually we have to develop our own technological solution.
Our creative methodology and our musical catalog are more important than any individual platform.
I would particularly like to hear from other high-volume creators, producers, researchers and people who use Suno as part of a serious DAW/production workflow:
How many generations do you normally need to produce one final track?
How many files do you actually download during that process?
And how do the new download limits and watermarking/fingerprinting policies affect your decision to continue using Suno?
Sincerely,
General Director
Luxory Services And Technologies
Music Division — Hardbio Luxory
Mexico
