Ever since the capacity to stream data like movies, television shows, and the music was developed there has been a battle between publishers, labels and artists to protect their content from being illegally shared without them being properly compensated for it. Streaming has completely changed the way the content distribution game is played on a massive level. Over the last 15 years, a number of streaming sites have been sued for failure to pay royalties to the publishers and artist for the content they were streaming – starting as far back as Kazaa in the early 2,000s. Now Spotify has been hit with a major lawsuit totaling $1.6 billion over copyright infringement issues.
Wixen Music Publishing has filed a lawsuit against Spotify for $1.6 billion alleging that the streaming giant is using thousands of songs or artists that include, Neil Young, the Doors, and Tom Petty without the proper licensing and without proper compensation. Wixen is the exclusive publisher of some of the most popular songs by a lot of top artists in the music industry. Some of the songs they hold they right to include “Light My Fire” by the Doors, “Good Thing” by Weezer and “Free Fallin” by Tom Petty. They also house the works of legends like Stevie Nicks.
Based on the documents filed in the case so far, it appears that Spotify failed to obtain a compulsory or direct license from Wixen – a license that is required by law to reproduce and distribute music held under copyright by another entity. The lawsuit, which has been filed in Federal Court in California will definitely send a message to these streaming companies that there is no free ride off the hard work of others.
While it is common for small entities and individuals to reproduce and stream copyrighted content – without any real threat of being sued – larger companies like Spotify are not afforded that same leniency. First, it is next to impossible to track and file litigation against all the individuals who are illegally downloading and redistributing music content, but it is definitely possible to identify these major companies that are making it possible.
If you are wondering why Spotify would make such an obvious blunder, it seems that they made the mistake of outsourcing the licensing responsibilities to a third-party agency that was ill-equipped to take on the monumental task of getting all of the licenses in place.
This is not the first time that Spotify has found itself in the hot seat, but this is definitely the most they have stood to lose at once. The lawsuit seeks to provide remuneration to the rights holders and songwriters of the words that have been illegally streamed. What is interesting is that the industry is shifting to be more streamer-friendly, meaning that is likely that legislation will be passed in the future that might make recuperating losses on these grounds more difficult.
This $1.6 billion lawsuit dwarfs the most recent $43 million settlement Spotify reached with songwriters, David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick, and if the lawsuit is successful, it will be viewed as a huge victory for artists who consistently lose money because of illegal streaming practices.
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