SPOTIFY AND SONGWRITER COMPENSATION -
COURT DROPS MLC LAWSUIT AGAINST SPOTIFY
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York today dropped the Mechanical Licensing Collective’s (MLC) lawsuit challenging SPOTIFY’s bundling plan that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in reduced payments to American Songwriters.
“We are extremely disappointed in the ruling,” said Nashville Songwriters Association International’s (NSAI) Executive Director Bart Herbison. “Following ten years of Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) proceedings with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) where we won historic mechanical royalty rate increases, Spotify came up with a bundling scheme resulting in hundreds of millions in reduced payments to American songwriters. The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) filed a lawsuit in response. This news is a gut punch.”
“NSAI is considering our next steps in our ongoing fight for fair compensation. We hope that deals such as the one just announced between Universal Music Group and Spotify, and recent direct agreements between Amazon and music publishers, will be beneficial in future Copyright Royalty Board proceedings where the streaming mechanical royalty rates for songwriters are set.”
UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DOES DIRECT DEAL WITH SPOTIFY
Universal Music Group meanwhile has announced a direct deal with SPOTIFY that reportedly rolls back parts of the insulting “bundling” scheme that the streaming service announced nearly a year ago. Amazon music also recently announced direct agreements. https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/27/24352993/spotify-universal-music-publishing-direct-agreement-deal-superfan-new-subscriptions
