Spotify Gets Struck By US$1.6 Billion Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

On Friday, Wixen Music Publishing filed a lawsuit against Sweden-based music streaming giant Spotify in California federal court over copyright infringement issues.

The California-based company manages song compositions by artistes including Rage Against the Machine’s Zach De La Rocha and Tom Morello, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and more.

It argues that Spotify has been using tens of thousands of songs, such as Petty’s Free Fallin’ and the Doors’ Light My Fire, without any license or compensation.

On Friday, Wixen Music Publishing filed a lawsuit against Sweden-based music streaming giant Spotify in California federal court over copyright infringement issues.

The California-based company manages song compositions by artistes including Rage Against the Machine’s Zach De La Rocha and Tom Morello, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and more.

It argues that Spotify has been using tens of thousands of songs, such as Petty’s Free Fallin’ and the Doors’ Light My Fire, without any license or compensation.

“The Settlement Agreement is procedurally and substantively unfair to Settlement Class Members because it prevents meaningful participation by rights holders and offers them an unfair dollar amount in light of Spotify’s ongoing, willful copyright infringement of their works,” explained Wixen’s group of songwriters.

“Spotify brazenly disregards United States Copyright law and has committed willful, ongoing copyright infringement. Wixen notified Spotify that it had neither obtained a direct or compulsory mechanical license for the use of the Works. For these reasons and the foregoing, Wixen is entitled to the maximum statutory relief,” reads the complaint. It added that nearly 21 percent of the 30 million songs on Spotify were unlicensed.

Spotify could potentially use the argument that “streaming” involves neither reproduction nor distribution rights as per copyright law, though this occurs while lawmakers remain in process of rectifying music licensing.