JUNE 2026 · PERSPECTIVE · ~5 MIN READ
The walled garden era of AI music is here — and the offline way out
The 2025–26 Suno and Udio settlements made cloud AI music walled, metered and provisional — songs that can't leave the platform, fees just to download. Here's what changed, what it means for independent creators, and why a 100% local, one-time-purchase tool is the structural opposite.