Wixen Music Publishing, which owns works by Tom Petty, Neil Young, Weezer, the Doors and more, has sued Spotify for using thousands of songs allegedly without license and compensation, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The publishing company is reportedly seeking damages worth at least $1.
6 billion, plus injunctive relief.Wixen’s lawsuit follows several lawsuits that have focused on Spotify’s alleged failure to pay royalties on a song’s musical composition. Recorded songs have two separate copyrights: The sound recording, which is typically owned by the record label, and the musical composition (also known as the “mechanical license”), which is owned by the songwriter and publisher.
The Wixen suit reads: “Prior to launching in the United States, Spotify attempted to license sound recordings by working with record labels but, in a race to be first to market, made insufficient efforts to collect the required musical composition information and, in turn, failed in many cases to license the compositions embodied within each recording or comply with the requirements of Section 115 of the Copyright Act.”
A representative for Spotify declined to comment. A…
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