“Spotify has been hit with a huge copyright lawsuit that alleges the music streaming company ‘failed to pay songwriter royalties to a publishing company approximately 21 percent of the time,’ according to the complaint,” Melanie Ehrenkranz reports for Gizmodo.
“Wixen Music Publishing filed the $1.6 billion lawsuit against Spotify on December 29th,” Ehrenkranz reports. “The music licensing company says it represents Tom Petty, Rage Against the Machine, Missy Elliott, Neil Young, Weezer, and the Beach Boys, among other artists.”
“Aside from the $1.6 billion in damages — which Wixen says is the summation of $150,000 per composition used without the proper licensing — the publishers are also seeking attorneys’ fees and costs and injunctive relief,” Ehrenkranz reports.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless:
Musicians and the music industry undermine themselves by allowing their music to be streamed by “free,” ad-supported outfits. – MacDailyNews, December 17, 2015
Only the lawyers win.
They and the RIAA, who hate the 21st Century. DRM everything!
They were streaming my music without my permission I had to tell them to stop but I don’t have Spotify account others who pay for the service tell me they can stream it.
Never been paid as I don’t have a connection to them.
Streaming is just piracy in a different model.
I’m interested in your comment, but I don’t understand your first sentence. Can you please reword or expand on it?
I found a “Mark Ryder” album on Spotify but even the more popular tracks have less than 1000 plays each.
I doubt he’ll make any money at all from that number of listens.
If they lose, the penalty will probably be reduced.
The question will ultimately be whether they can continue to operate their free side or operate at all should they lose the suit.. They may have to dump the free side and see how far they get with the subs they do have..
Streaming music = wild, wild west of the music industry. Yet there’s no turning back to earlier distribution models. Ultimately, the copyright rules governing creative ownership will need to change as the boundaries of originality become ever more blurred.