Belgian company Winamp has filed a lawsuit in the United States against American chipmaker Nvidia.
It accuses the tech giant of using its subsidiary Jamendo’s music catalogue without permission to train artificial intelligence models without explicit permission.
Jamendo, based in Luxembourg, manages a catalogue of over 800,000 tracks for personal use and an additional 300,000 songs for commercial applications.
According to Winamp, Nvidia used more than 55,000 songs from Jamendo along with their corresponding metadata to train AI models, as revealed in a technical document.
In Belgium, Winamp earlier lodged a claim before the Ghent Commercial Court, seeking €16 million in damages for the commercial use of Jamendo’s catalogue songs.
The court declared itself competent in the matter on 11 June and is now awaiting written submissions from both parties before hearings scheduled for 24 June 2027.
The new legal action launched in the United States targets copyright and contract violations, as well as unjust enrichment.
"We aim to defend artists’ interests. Other companies have paid for licences, so we demand that the same rules apply to everyone," stated Thierry Ascarez, Winamp’s Chief Business Officer. A similar lawsuit is being considered against AI music generator Suno.
Winamp, once famous for its computer-based media player in the 2000s, now focuses on developing a platform for rights and revenue management for artists.
