Royalties
Sony Music pulled its catalog from the streaming service Boomplay on Monday (Dec. 9) due to late royalty payments, Billboard has confirmed. Several other prominent labels and distributors also confirmed to Billboard on Monday that they have not received recent royalty payments from the service. Additionally, a monthly payment report published by the distributor Symphonic […]
Universal Music Group (UMG) is firing back at a lawsuit from Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst claiming the label owes the band more than $200 million, calling the allegations “fiction” and demanding they be thrown out of court.
The blockbuster lawsuit, filed last month in Los Angeles federal court, claimed that Durst had “not seen a dime in royalties” over the decades — and that hundreds of other artists may have been treated similarly under “systemic” and “fraudulent” policies.
But in UMG’s first response on Friday, attorneys for the label said the lawsuit must be dismissed immediately because it is “based on a fallacy.”
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“Plaintiffs’ entire narrative that UMG tried to conceal royalties is a fiction,” writes Rollin A. Ransom, an attorney with the law firm Sidley Austin who represents UMG in the lawsuit. “Plaintiffs’ complaint fails as a matter of law and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
The key problem with Durst’s claims? According to UMG’s attorneys, it’s that documents included in his own lawsuit “eviscerate” his allegations. They specifically cite emails in which a UMG exec appears to have reached out to get royalties flowing, but was rebuffed by the band’s own business manager.
“Over a year before plaintiffs’ ‘discovery’ of allegedly ‘concealed’ royalties, UMG affirmatively and unilaterally reached out to Limp Bizkit’s representative so that it could begin making royalty payments to the band, and was instead informed by him that all members of Limp Bizkit but one (including plaintiff Durst) had assigned their royalty shares to others, and were therefore not entitled to any royalty payments from UMG,” the company wrote in Friday’s filing.
Durst’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday. They will have a chance to file a formal response in court opposing UMG’s motion to end the case.
Durst and Limp Bizkit sued UMG in October, claiming the band had “never received any royalties from UMG,” despite its huge success over the years: “The band had still not been paid a single cent by UMG in any royalties until taking action.”
That claim was something of a stunner. How had one of the biggest bands of its era, which sold millions of records during the music industry’s MTV-fueled, turn-of-the-century glory days, still never have been paid any royalties nearly three decades later?
According to Durst, the answer was an “appalling and unsettling” scheme to conceal royalties from artists and “keep those profits for itself.” He claimed the company essentially kept Limp Bizkit in the red with shady bookkeeping, allowing it to falsely claim the band remained unrecouped — meaning its royalties still had not surpassed the amount the group had been paid in upfront advances.
But in Friday’s response, UMG said such claims of “concealment” were undercut by those emails. UMG says the message show a senior royalties director reaching out on his own initiative to Paul Ta, the band’s business manager, to “start making royalty payments,” but being rebuffed.
“Mr. Ta rejected that proposition, responding that all the Limp Bizkit members but one (including Plaintiff Durst) ‘have … sold/assigned their share [of the royalties] to various companies,’ such that no royalty payments were owing to any of those individuals (including Plaintiff Durst),” UMG wrote in Friday’s motion.
UMG says Ta later emailed back that his statements had been incorrect, at which point the label paid out roughly $3.4 million to the band and its companies – a fact that contradicts the lawsuit’s claims of “never received any royalties.”
“Plaintiffs concede thereafter receiving millions of dollars in payments from UMG,” the label wrote Friday. “Plaintiffs nevertheless brought this suit alleging breach of contract and fraud on their ‘suspicion’ that they are owed more royalties, and seeking rescission of the parties’ agreements.”
Ten-time ASCAP songwriter of the year Ashley Gorley is donating royalties from the Billboard Country Airplay chart-topping hit “I Am Not Okay,” written by Gorley with co-writers Taylor Phillips and Casey Brown, and recorded by Jelly Roll, to help aid mental health initiatives for those in the songwriting community.
Gorley, who is also known for writing No. 1 hits including the Morgan Wallen/Post Malone 16-week Hot 100 chart-topping “I Had Some Help” and other hits recorded by Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Kelsea Ballerini and more, is commemorating the success of “I Am Not Okay” by supporting the launch of a program by The Onsite Foundation, aimed at helping the creative community. The Creatives Support Network will provide free mentorship, education, resources and mental wellness support specifically created to help members of the songwriting community.
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“A song about struggling to get out of bed in the morning is No. 1 and that really speaks to where we are in the world,” Gorley said in a statement. “It was important for us to take this moment to say ‘you’re not the only one,’ and to support a creative network with programming that is tailored to songwriters at any stage of their journey.”
Songwriter-focused intensives are a key part of the program, including two-day immersive, individual or group coaching and therapy sessions designed for creatives. The program also includes mentorship, social impact initiatives and online curriculum and conversation resources complimentary to the creative community, thanks to Gorley giving 80 grants for 80 individuals, in addition to program infrastructure support.
“This song in particular, along with the Jelly Roll Era, is creating a movement and timely conversation regarding the need to equip creatives with necessary tools to optimize their personal and professional pursuits,” Onsite’s Miles Adcox said in a statement. “I’ve been at the intersection of Music and Mental Wellness for the better part of my career and have experienced firsthand the challenges and opportunities facing today’s creatives. Music is medicine, and the comfort, relief, support, and overall impact it provides globally to humanity is immeasurable. Our storytellers are a national treasure we should pour into and protect at all costs. We’re grateful to Ashley, Jelly Roll, and the Tape Room writers for starting this conversation in the songwriting community and for lending their expertise and resources.”
The Jelly Roll hit “I Am Not Okay” offers an honest portrayal of the struggles many face with mental health issues. The song is from Jelly Roll’s recent Billboard 200-topping album Beautifully Broken.
Among Gorley’s recent accolades are ACM songwriter and song of the year for the Cole Swindell hit “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” and ASCAP’s country song of the year with Wallen’s “You Proof.” Gorley was also honored as NSAI’s Songwriter of the Decade for 2010-2019.
In 2011, Gorley, a Belmont University graduate, also formed his own publishing company, Tape Room Music, with a roster that includes his “I Am Not Okay” co-writers Brown and Phillips.
As Billboard reported Thursday (Oct. 24), global royalty collections rose 7.6% to a new high of 11.75 billion euros ($10.9 billion, based on the average exchange rate for 2023), according to the Paris-based trade organization CISAC (the Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs). That article covers the basic news — digital collections grew 9.6% to 4.52 billion euros ($4.18 billion); radio and television collections declined 5.3% to 3.37 billion euros ($3.11 billion) after a significant jump the previous year; and live and background music collections grew 21.8% to 3.06 billion euros ($2.82 billion), fueled mostly by a resurgent concert business. There’s more detail in the news article.
Now let’s take a longer-term look at the state of the market to see where all the recent growth has come from and what that implies about the future. Since 2019, the music collections business has grown from 8.92 billion euros ($8.24 million) to 11.75 billion euros ($10.9 billion), an increase of 31.7% over five years, which is annualized growth of more than 6%. That arguably presents a more accurate picture of market trends than year-by-year changes from this period, since the concert business was so disrupted by the pandemic.
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Most of that growth came from digital, which grew 119% — from 2.06 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in 2019 to 4.52 billion euros ($4.2 billion) last year. Perhaps more important, the 2.46 billion euros ($2.27 billion) of digital growth represents almost all the growth in the business during that time. And that growth is starting to slow. In 2023, digital growth slowed from 35.1% to 9.6%, which contributed to an overall slowing of growth from 29% to 7.6%. Some of that is inevitable — subscription streaming growth has leveled off in the U.S. and Western Europe, the biggest markets that traditionally drive the business. Together, the U.S., Western Europe and Canada account for almost 75% of collections revenue. Digital revenue will almost certainly keep growing — from price increases and new products, among other factors, but the wonder years of digital growth may be in the past.
The state of global royalty collections offers other reasons for optimism, though. First, a caveat: These numbers don’t provide a perfect picture of the music publishing business, or even public performance royalties, since some digital royalties are paid through direct deals. These numbers represent the best global picture of the collecting business available, though, and it seems safe to say that the direct deals, for which numbers aren’t available, roughly follow these trends. This almost certainly understates the growth of the music publishing business, though, since it doesn’t include U.S. mechanical publishing royalties, any synch rights and a variety of new kinds of deals.
The challenge for collecting societies is that the second largest source of revenue, from TV and radio play for compositions, does not seem to be growing. It was 3.4 billion euros ($3.14 billion) in 2019 and it’s now 3.37 billion euros ($3.11 billion) — a more significant decline than it seems, given inflation. Since this revenue is tied to TV and radio businesses in most markets, some of it seems to have gone to digital, which has replaced it as the most important source of revenue.
There’s more hope in the live business. The disruption of the pandemic made this hard to see, but live and background music royalties are growing steadily — from 2.71 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in 2019 to 3.06 billion euros ($2.83 billion) last year — a rise of 12.7%. That’s not so big, divided over five years, but live is growing faster than the rest of the category, and growth in ticket prices for the biggest tours will result in more royalty revenue in territories where that’s linked to ticket prices. That trend is expected to continue, too. That could make live music an important source of growth in both established markets and new ones.
Right now, the collecting society revenue breaks down as follows: 38.5% of money comes from digital; 28.7% from TV and radio; 26.1% from live and background music; 3.2% from CD and video sales; 2.4% from private copy levies (which the U.S. does not have); and 1.1% from other sources. How might that look five years from now? It’s hard to imagine digital climbing above half since that would imply a significant decline for TV and radio revenue. Live royalties should climb, maybe significantly, and background music revenue could climb in some markets, although it’s not likely to grow so much in the U.S. and Western Europe.
The origins of collections revenue will also change: There’s also really impressive growth coming from parts of the world that barely generated much revenue five years ago. Collections in Latin America rose 26.2% last year but 108.2% over the last two years, driven by Mexico and Brazil and the spread of streaming throughout Latin America. Right now, that impressive growth doesn’t change the overall picture much — the region still only accounts for 5.9% of collections revenue. But if that growth pattern continues, the market could become significant soon. Over the last five years, Latin America collections went from 4.1% of the global total to the aforementioned 5.9% share.
The same goes for some markets in Asia. Overall, there’s not much growth there — it’s down 0.3% because of Japanese currency fluctuations but up 6.8% on a constant currency basis. But Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, where between 80% and 85% of collections revenue comes from digital, are up 270.4%, 111.6% and 325.8%, respectively, over the last five years. Those increases aren’t big enough in revenue terms to lift the overall business, but they’re growing fast enough that they could make a difference five years from now. Africa, hailed as having so much potential, seems to be stuck: It went from accounting for .7% of global music collections to .6%. That won’t matter much to overall revenue anytime soon. But it shows how the music business still faces serious challenges in Africa, as well as how those challenges impact real, working creators. These problems are complicated, but they are also urgent: Creators in Africa deserve better.
Growth is continuing in bigger markets, however; the top 10 markets grew 6.3% last year. Over the past five years, the U.S. and Canada grew 44.4% and 38.9% respectively, with the U.K., France and Germany up 44.5%, 34.7% and 20.2%. The strongest growth over that time took place in Korea, up 70.9%. The health and stability of the larger markets should make it easier for the fast-growing smaller ones to improve the entire business.
Global royalty collections for song rightsholders grew 7.6% last year, to a new high of 11.75 billion Euros ($10.9 billion, based on the average exchange rate for 2023), according to CISAC (the Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs), the Paris-based collecting societies trade organization. Much of the growth was driven by two categories: Digital collections rose 9.6% to 4.52 billion Euros ($4.18 billion), while live and background music royalties grew 21.8% — fueled largely by the concert business — to overtake the pre-pandemic total from 2019.
The big collecting societies all had good years, but the CISAC report offers unparalleled insight into a complicated but important part of the music publishing business. (CISAC includes other collecting societies from outside the music business, but publishing accounts for most of these royalties, which are, in turn, more important to music than to other businesses. CISAC breaks out music royalties, but its figures only include those that go through CISAC member societies rather than direct deals.) There are no big surprises here: Digital has been the main driver of growth recently, more than doubling in five years from 2.06 billion Euros ($1.90 billion) in 2019 to 4.52 billion Euros ($4.18 billion) last year — although last year’s growth of 9.6% was lower than in any of the preceding four. Digital now accounts for 38.5% of collections, more than any other category.
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Collections for broadcast and live concerts and background music represent the two other major sources of revenue, accounting for 28.7% and 26.1%, respectively. (Background music refers to compositions played in public, at restaurants, stores or bars, for example.) Royalties from TV and radio declined 5.3% to 3.37 billion Euros ($3.11 billion) after a significant jump the previous year. They have stayed fairly steady over the past half-decade.
The live and background music figures are more complicated because of the disruption from the pandemic. Last year those categories grew to 3.06 billion euros ($2.82 billion), fueled mostly by the return of live music revenue, which in some regions may lag live music events. More significantly, that represents a 12.7% jump from 2019.
Collecting societies take in most of their business in Europe and the U.S.; CISAC has one category for Western Europe and another for the U.S. and Canada. Western Europe collections rose 8.2%, while those in the U.S. and Canada rose 7.8%. Taken as a whole, Europe accounts for more than half of total collecting society revenue, and the U.S. and Canada together account for another 27.1%. Asia-Pacific royalties shrank by .3%, largely due to currency fluctuations in Japan, without which the region would have seen 6.8% growth. The fastest growing region is Latin America, up by 26.2% — and by 108.2% over the past two years – although it only accounts for 5.9% of the overall market. Africa, where executives have seen massive potential for years, is still growing very slowly – up 3.2% to .6% of the overall market.
General CISAC collections are also up 7.6%, to 13.09 billion Euros ($12.1 billion), also an all-time high, with digital up 9.6% to 4.62 billion Euros ($4.3 billion). (This includes collecting societies for other media, such as writing and visual art, which many countries in Europe have.)
Billboard will follow this news story with a more extensive analysis of growth sectors, the future of various markets, and how this business might grow in the years ahead.
PPL has been appointed to collect neighboring rights for John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Announced Tuesday (Oct. 15), the deal will see the U.K.-based collective management organization (CMO) collect broadcast and public performance royalties globally on sound recordings where Lennon or Ono are listed as performers in markets where such rights exist. “PPL has shown […]
Weeks after Nelly’s former St. Lunatics groupmates sued him for allegedly cutting them out of royalties for his chart-topping breakout album Country Grammar, three of the ex-bandmates now say they never wanted to be part of the lawsuit and must be removed immediately.
In a letter sent last month, Nelly’s attorney warned the lawyer who filed the case last month that Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan) and City Spud (Lavell Webb) had recently retained his services and had “informed me that they did not authorize you to include them as plaintiffs.”
“They are hereby demanding you remove their names forthwith,” N. Scott Rosenblum wrote in the Sept. 24 letter, which was obtained by Billboard. “Failure to do so will cause them to explore any and all legal remedies available to them.”
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The move is a major twist just weeks after Harper, Kyjuan and Webb joined fellow St. Lunatics member Ali (Ali Jones) in filing the lawsuit against Nelly (Cornell Haynes). But it also makes sense after Nelly’s performance on Sunday (Oct. 6) at the American Music Awards, where all three men joined him on stage and appeared to be on good terms.
The withdrawal of Harper, Kyjuan and Webb means that the case is now essentially a dispute between Nelly and Ali alone. Ali’s attorney who filed the case, Gail M. Walton, did not immediately return a request for comment.
A group of high school friends from St. Louis, the St. Lunatics rose to prominence in the late 1990s with “Gimme What U Got”, and their debut album Free City — released a year after Country Grammar — was a hit of its own, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
In their Sept. 18 complaint, the bandmates claimed that Nelly had repeatedly “manipulated” them into falsely thinking they’d be paid for their work on the 2000 album, which spent five weeks atop the Billboard 200. But they said he never made good on the promises.
“Every time plaintiffs confronted defendant Haynes [he] would assure them as ‘friends’ he would never prevent them from receiving the financial success they were entitled to,” the lawsuit reads. “Unfortunately, plaintiffs, reasonably believing that their friend and former band member would never steal credit for writing the original compositions, did not initially pursue any legal remedies.”
During and after the Country Grammar recording session, the lawsuit claimed, Nelly “privately and publicly acknowledged that plaintiffs were the lyric writers” and “promised to ensure that plaintiffs received writing and publishing credit.” But decades later, in 2020, the lawsuit claimed that the St. Lunatics “discovered that defendant Haynes had been lying to them the entire time.”
“Despite repeatedly promising plaintiffs that they would receive full recognition and credit… it eventually became clear that defendant Haynes had no intention of providing the plaintiffs with any such credit or recognition,” the lawsuit read.
Limp Bizkit and frontman Fred Durst are suing Universal Music Group (UMG) over allegations that the label owes the band more than $200 million, with Durst’s lawyers writing that he had “not seen a dime in royalties” over the decades — and that hundreds of other artists may have been treated similarly.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday (Oct. 8) in Los Angeles federal court, attorneys for Durst and the 1990s rap rock band accused UMG of implementing a “systemic” and “fraudulent” policy that was “deliberately designed” to conceal royalties from artists and “keep those profits for itself.”
“UMG’s creation of such a system, while holding itself out as a company that prides itself on investing in and protecting its artists, makes plaintiffs’ discovery of UMG’s scheme all the more appalling and unsettling,” Durst’s lawyers write, adding that “possibly hundreds of other artists” had also “unfairlyhad their royalties wrongfully withheld for years.”
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In a stunning claim, Durst alleges that as recently as August, Limp Bizkit had “never received any royalties from UMG,” despite the band’s huge success during its turn-of-the-century peak. The lawsuit said the band’s albums had all sold millions of copies, and that Limp Bizkit continues to have “millions of streaming users per month on Spotify alone.”
“Despite this tremendous ‘come back,’ the band had still not been paid a single cent by UMG in any royalties until taking action against UMG, leading one to ask how on earth that could possibly be true,” Durst’s lawyers write.
A spokesman for UMG did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
Durst claims that the current dispute dates to April when he retained new representatives who were “shocked” when he informed them he had “not received any money for any Limp Bizkit exploitations — ever.” He claims UMG had previously told him that he was not being paid because the band remained unrecouped — meaning its royalties still had not surpassed the amount the group had been paid in upfront advances.
“Durst explained that he had been informed by UMG that he had not received any royalty statements because UMG told him over the years that it was not required to provide them since his account was still so far from recoupment,” his lawyers write. “Durst’s representatives, suspicious that UMG was wrongfully claiming Plaintiffs’ accounts were unrecouped, suggested investigating further.”
When Durst’s reps contacted UMG, they say they learned that Limp Bizkit’s accounts actually held more than $1 million in royalties but that the label had “failed to alert” the band about the money. That prompted more suspicion about “UMG’s accounting and payment practices” and an investigation into Limp Bizkit’s records.
They didn’t like what they found. According to the lawsuit, UMG had allegedly failed to issue royalty statements at all during significant periods of the band’s history, including “during the height of Limp Bizkit’s fame.”
“UMG’s failure to issue royalty statements in particular from 1997-2004 — the height of the band’s fame and during periods in which they made record-breaking sales — with respect to its most popular albums suggests that UMG was intentionally concealing the true amount of sales, and therefore royalties, due and owing to Limp Bizkit in order to unfairly keep those profits for itself.”
The suggestion that the band’s albums are still unrecouped is also “highly suspect,” Durst’s lawyers write, citing the band’s huge commercial success during its early years: “Given that Limp Bizkit’s first three albums had already sold several million copies by the early 2000s, the recording funds and costs should have been quickly recouped, and UMG should have started paying royalties on those albums right away — not over twenty years later,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also points to potential “fraudulent accounting practices” that Durst’s attorneys claim were used by UMG to improperly keep the band in the red and avoid paying royalties.
“But where did this additional $199,676.00 charged to the account come from?” his lawyers write, referring to one such alleged inconsistency. “It seems to have come out of thin air to overdraft Limp Bizkit’s due and payable account in order to defraud Limp Bizkit and show an unrecouped account.”
When those issues were raised with UMG, the lawsuit says the label argued that Limp Bizkit had been paid $43 million in recoupable advances over the years, which explained why the royalties had not started flowing into the accounts until recently. Durst’s attorneys say the label eventually released $1.03 million to the band and $2.3 million to Durst’s Flawless Records, but that they’re owed far more than that.
“Given the vast amounts of money collected by UMG in relation to sales of Limp Bizkit’s and Flawless Records’ albums over the years … UMG is liable to plaintiffs for tens of millions of dollars in copyright infringement, if not more,” the lawsuit reads. “Indeed, Plaintiffs allege that the amounts owed to them by UMG following the rescission of these agreements will easily surpass $200 million.”
In technical terms, the lawsuit seeks not only allegedly unpaid royalties, but also a ruling voiding the band’s contract with the label, the return of the band’s copyrights to their recordings and copyright infringement damages over those rights.
Primary Wave Music has acquired the producer royalty and neighboring rights royalty streams for artist manager, music critic, and record producer Jon Landau.
This deal includes Landau’s points and neighboring rights royalties to songs by Bruce Springsteen, whom he worked with as a co-producer for Born To Run, The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Promise, Born in the U.S.A., Live 1975-1985, Human Touch, Lucky Town and Tracks. The deal also entails his producer and neighboring rights royalties for his production on Jackson Browne’s The Pretender.
A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Landau was a pivotal figure in rock music during his decades-long career. Landau got his start writing about music for publications like Crawdaddy and The Boston Phoenix and by 1967 he was hired by Jann Wenner as the lead writer for the brand new Rolling Stone publication, a position he held for a decade.
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By 1970, Landau was simultaneously writing for Rolling Stone and getting back to his roots as a lifelong musician by producing MC5’s studio album debut Back In The USA.
He got to know Springsteen in 1974 after he reviewed a performance by the singer-songwriter and called him the “future” of rock music. The following year, he co-produced Born To Run, cementing both his relationship with The Boss and his career as a producer. He would go on to co-produce eight more of his records. During this time, he also befriended Browne and produced 1976’s The Pretender, featuring songs like “Here Come Those Tears Again” and the title track.
Two decades later, Landau experienced another career peak as the manager for Shania Twain. He helped build the country-pop artist’s career, leading her to true super stardom with her 1997 album Come On Over, featuring the song “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “You’re Still The One.”
Landau has also worked with artists like Natalie Merchant, Train, Alejandro Escovedo, Livingston Taylor and more.
“I thank all at Primary Wave for recognizing my contributions over the last fifty years and look forward to having an ongoing and productive relationship with them,” says Landau of the deal.
Marty Silverstone, president of global synch at Primary Wave, adds: “We’re honored to be partnering with Jon Landau and all of the legendary music he helped shape. He’s an influential figure in music, and we’re proud to welcome him to the Primary Wave family.”
The transaction between Landau and Primary Wave Music was facilitated by David Simone and Winston Simone.
SoundExchange is suing a free streaming service called AccuRadio over allegations that the company failed to pay royalties for music, claiming the streamer has “directly harmed creators.”
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Washington D.C. federal court, SoundExchange accused AccuRadio of violating the federal law that governs how radio-like services pay royalties to record labels and artists for the right to publicly perform copyrighted sound recordings.
SoundExchange – the non-profit that collects and distributes such “statutory royalties” – says AccuRadio had always paid its full bill until 2016, when its payments “slowed” and then finally stopped in 2018.
“AccuRadio has directly harmed creators over the years by refusing to pay royalties for the use of protected recordings,” said Michael Huppe, SoundExchange’s president and CEO said in a statement on Monday. “Today, SoundExchange is standing up for creators through this lawsuit to protect the value of music and ensure creators are compensated fairly for their work. We hope AccuRadio will immediately reverse course and pay what they owe for the use of the music that sits at the foundation of its service.”
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Founded in 2000, AccuRadio boasts that it is “the only online music streaming service curated by human beings, not algorithms.” The company offers hundreds of ad-supported free music channels that users can further customize, including skipping songs they don’t like.
According to SoundExchange, after AccuRadio stopped paying its royalty bill, the two sides have attempted to negotiate a solution for years, including a so-called forbearance agreement last year in which the streamer agreed to make a set down payment and then regular additional payments. But after three months, SoundExchance claims AccuRadio defaulted on that agreement, too.
“The cumulative amount of defendant’s underpayment – which harms SoundExchange, as well as the performing artists and copyright owners on whose behalf it collects and distributes royalties – continues to grow with each passing month,” SoundExchange’s lawyers write in their complaint.
In addition to demanding payment, the lawsuit is seeking a preliminary injunction that would immediately force AccuRadio to either pay up or stop offering copyrighted music to its listenership.
“While defendant has defaulted on the payments due pursuant to the forbearance agreement, it continues to operate its multichannel internet radio service, providing access to over a thousand pre-developed music channels and access to millions of sound recordings,” the lawsuit reads. “Injunctive relief is reasonably necessary to stop defendant from abusing the statutory license and incurring further damages throughout the pendency of this litigation.”
AccuRadio did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.