Spotify is facing a $150 million lawsuit

Music streaming powerhouse Spotify is facing a class action lawsuit from David Lowery that could end up paying the artist rights advocate $150 million. Billboard reports the lawsuit alleges that Spotify “knowingly, willingly, and unlawfully reproduces and distributes copyrighted compositions without obtaining mechanical licenses.” These licenses are the ones that allow outside parties to utilize copyrighted music.

Spotify’s Jonathan Prince provided the following statement:

“We are committed to paying songwriters and publishers every penny. Unfortunately, especially in the United States, the data necessary to confirm the appropriate rightsholders is often missing, wrong, or incomplete. When rightsholders are not immediately clear, we set aside the royalties we owe until we are able to confirm their identities. We are working closely with the National Music Publishers Association to find the best way to correctly pay the royalties we have set aside and we are investing in the resources and technical expertise to build a comprehensive publishing administration system to solve this problem for good.”

Lowery, who belongs to bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, is aiming to receive up to $150,000 for each song that is eligible for willful infringement. Combine that figure with the millions of people using Spotify and the music streaming service might actually end up paying a massive amount of money at the end of it all.

Spotify is said to have around $25 million stored for paying royalties for songs it lacks proper rights to; however, this specific lawsuit clearly goes above and beyond that reserve fund. The two parties could always reach a settlement outside of the courtroom, but that’s unlikely considering Lowery is entering a legal battle with Spotify on behalf of all musicians.

Source: Billboard
Via: The Verge

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