Spotify hit with $1.6 billion copyright lawsuit over songs by The Doors, Neil Young, other popular artists

by Milen Yanachkov / Jan 03, 2018, 5:57 AM

Spotify hit with $1.6 billion copyright lawsuit over songs by The Doors, Neil Young, other popular artists

California-based music publisher Wixen Music has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against music streaming giant Spotify over music from The Doors, Neil Young, Steely Dan and other popular artists. The lawsuit alleges that Spotify has been airing songs from its catalog without proper licensing and without providing the respective monetary compensation for the publisher.

Wixen Music Publishing holds the license to various songs by The Doors, Tom Petty, Zach De La Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Donald Fagen of Steely Dab, Neil Young, David Cassidy, and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Stevie Nicks, among others, and is now seeking damages north of $1.6 billion alongside injunctive relief, Reuters reported.

Wixen also alleges in the lawsuit that the Stockholm-based streaming juggernaut outsourced its work to a third-party company, which was “ill-equipped to obtain all the necessary mechanical licenses”.

The publisher's move comes hardly as a surprise. Spotify was last year slammed with a class action lawsuit from songwriters David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick, followed by two suits in July accusing the company of broadcasting music without proper licensing.

via Reuters

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6 Comments

1. apple-rulz

Posts: 1843; Member since: Dec 27, 2016

Samsung should buy Spotify, improve it and make it their competitor to Apple Music.

posted on Jan 03, 2018, 7:48 AM 3

2. Settings

Posts: 2942; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

Look at what happened to Milk. I don't want that to happen to Spotify.

posted on Jan 03, 2018, 9:37 AM 5

4. iushnt

Posts: 3040; Member since: Feb 06, 2013

Did anything wrong happened to Harman?

posted on Jan 03, 2018, 10:46 AM 0

3. kiko007

Posts: 7386; Member since: Feb 17, 2016

Do you people understand corporate interests like at all? You realize Spotify (and music services like it) are nothing but money sinks, right? Buying such a organization would likely never bring in any reasonable profits without extensive marketing costs. Hell, Spotify themselves weren't making profit until around two years ago!