Suno v6 vs v5.5: what changed, and what happens to older models

Searchers type "suno v6 vs v5.5", but the TechCrunch report on the launch does not name v5.5: it says Suno replaced its older models with v6 and that the older ones will be retired. What it does list is the v6 family and what is new. So the honest comparison is v6 against "what you made before", and the practical question is what to do with songs and prompts built on an older model.

This page lists what is reported and what is not.

What is in the v6 family?

TechCrunch reports three models: v6, described as paid and controlled; v6-wild, paid and experimental; and v6-mini, available to all users. It also reports training on licensed data, with deals named for Warner Music Group, BMG and Believe, plus editing parts of a song, text, image and video references, stem isolation, planned watermarks and tiered download limits.

What do you lose when older models retire?

If your workflow depends on the sound of an older model, you lose the ability to regenerate it. Download and keep the files you want, and save the prompts, because a prompt that worked on an older model may sound different on v6. The report does not say how long older songs stay accessible, so do not rely on the site as an archive.

What if you need a stable music API?

Sume's Music Router is a different product, not a Suno endpoint: it takes a text prompt and an optional image, resolves to Lyria 3.5 today, and lets you pin an explicit id. Each generation is a fixed-price job with a hosted audio file. It does not edit part of a song, isolate stems or use audio or video references, and Music 1.0 is documented as retiring gradually in favour of the router. See the Music Router page.

What should I do?

Download what you need from older Suno models now, record the model on each file, and test a few prompts on v6 before relying on them. If you need a stable engine id for a product, pin one and log it.