Spotify Faces $1.6 Billion Lawsuit For Copyright Infringement Of Songs

Spotify was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit Friday by Wixen Music Publishing, which alleged the Swedish music streaming company used numerous songs without licenses and compensations.

Wixen Music Publishing administers music compositions by famous artists such as Tom Petty, Tom Morello of the band Rage Against the Machine and Neil Young, to name a few, according to a report by Hollywood Reporter.

The lawsuit alleged Spotify used songs including Petty’s “Free Fallin,” and the Door’s “Light My Fire” without providing compensations or using proper licenses. It pointed out around 21 percent of songs out of the 30 million on the Spotify database were unlicensed.

“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," the lawsuit stated.

Wixen Music Publishing was looking to seek damages worth $1.6 billion along with injunctive relief.

Spotify did not comment on the ongoing matter. The report stated the company might opt to challenge Wixen’s authority on the matter or might put forward a previously used argument, which stated “streaming” doesn’t violate reproduction and distribution rights under the copyright law.

However, this is not the first time Spotify has found itself involved in a copyright infringement lawsuit. The company was also sued by David Lowery, the frontman of bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, in 2016 and also by singer-songwriter Melissa Ferret the same year.

Both the artists were seeking class-action certification. Lowery in the lawsuit stated Spotify did not pay for the songs it had streamed.

Spotify settled both the Lowery and Ferret lawsuits in May by reaching a settlement that consisted of the company setting up a fund worth $43.4 million, which would compensate the artists whose music were used without paying mechanical royalties.

However, this move didn’t do enough to end Spotify’s misery. According to another report by Hollywood Reporter, artists like Petty, Morello, David Cassidy, Kenny Rogers along with publishers came out in protest of the above settlement.

According to a court filing, the group of protesting artists and publishers, who were called “objectors,” stated, “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. … According to its own publicity, Spotify has about 30 million songs.”

“If as few as one-quarter of those songs, 7.5 million, were unlicensed then, taking the $28.7 million left in the Settlement Fund after attorneys’ fees are paid and dividing that number by 7.5 million songs, the result is a settlement payment of $3.82 per infringed song,” stated the court filing.