Wixen Music Publishing sues Spotify for $1.6bn

Spotify has been hit by a $1.6bn (£1.2bn) lawsuit by Wixen Music Publishing for its alleged use of thousands of songs without a proper licence, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The company administers songs by Tom Petty, Donald Fagen (Steely Dan), Neil Young and Stevie Nicks among others. In the suit, filed in California’s federal court last Friday, the company alleges that Spotify is using Pettys ‘Free Fallin, the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ and tens of thousands of other songs without a licence and compensation. The plaintiff is seeking a damages award worth at least $1.6bn plus injunctive relief.

The suit stems from a proposed $43m (£31.6m) settlement last May of a class action lawsuit brought by a group of songwriters led by David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick,for non-payment of mechanical royalties. This settlement has been criticised in many quarters as inadequate and has still to be approved by a judge.

In September, a group of Wixen songwriters filed an objection to the settlement, saying: “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.”

Spotify’s response was to question whether Wixen has the right to sue on its clients’ behalf. In court papers filed on Friday, Spotify noted that Wixen had written to its clients stating that it would submit Requests for Exclusion in their names unless the client asked them not to, in writing, within a short period of time.

“But that letter does not confer the requisite authority on Wixen Music,” Spotify wrote. “In sending the letters, Wixen Music effectively assumed that the recipients’ silence would grant it the power to opt the recipients out of the certified class. But that approach is contrary to law: because the right to opt out of a class action is an individual right, any attempt to exercise that right without express authorization is invalid.”

While the judge in that case considers the outcome, Wixen has now launched its own lawsuit, in which it suggests that as much as 21 per cent of the 30m songs on Spotify are unlicensed, and says:

“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.”