Spotify In Trouble: $1.6 Billion Copyright LawSuit Over Tom Petty, Neil Young & The Doors Songs

It's not a happy start to 2018 for Spotify. A new copyright lawsuit has been filed against them to the tune of $1.6 Billion for unlicensed use of songs by Neil Young, The Doors, Weezer and many more.  

What a way to bring in the new year. Not what Swedish music streaming giant Spotify would have been hoping for. But after a number of copyright lawsuits it dealth with in 2017, Spotify have been hit with a huge $1.6 Billion lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing.

According to Hollywood Reporter, Wixen Music Publishing "administers song compositions by Tom Petty, Zach De La Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, David Cassidy, Neil Young, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Stevie Nicks and many others.

"On Friday, Wixen Music Publishing filed a lawsuit in California federal court that alleges that Spotify is using Petty's "Free Fallin'," the Doors' "Light My Fire" and tens of thousands of other songs without a license and compensation. The plaintiff is seeking a damages award worth at least $1.6 billion plus injunctive relief."

According to court papers filed on Friday 29 December 2017, "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."

And this might not be the last lawsuit Spotify receives in the coming months. It is alleged that over 20 percent of the 30 million songs on Spotify are unlicensed. (For those struggling to find a calculator, that's approximately 6,000,000 unlicensed tracks.

2018 being the year Spotify is planning on going public could also be the year it is toppled should more lawsuits come to light.

Remember this next time you use an unlicensed track or sample in your next production ;-)

[Via: Hollywood Reporter]

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Rounik is the Executive Editor for Ask.Audio & macProVideo. He's built a crack team of professional musicians and writers to create one of the most visited online resources for news, review, tutorials and interviews for modern musician and producer. As an Apple Certified Trainer for Logic Pro Rounik has taught teachers, professional... Read More

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