Spotify Settles Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

Just days after announcing the streaming service would go public, Spotify was court ordered to pay out the $43.5 million settlement of the class action lawsuit that was filed back in May 2017. The lawsuit is a combination of one filed by Melissa Ferrick and another by David Lowery in the court system. Derrick and Lowery sued the popular streaming service for copyright infringement.  The lawsuit involves songwriters and publishers whose music was published without permission by the service. They (Derrick and Lowery) alleged Spotify made some music available on its platform without having the license and permission to do so.

The artists who did not receive compensation from Spotify previously, could reap the benefit of the $43.5 million fund set up by Spotify. Claimants who are eligible for compensation includes those who own copyrights on compositions that were made available via Spotify for download/stream without license during the class action period, which is between December 28, 2012 and June 29, 2017.  Artists who shared with Spotify during this period must have a certificate of registration issued or applied for the compositions during this time period.

Artists who are affected by the lawsuit need to submit a “timely” and “valid” claim form, in order to receive compensation as an authorized claimant.  Forms that are approved will receive a pro rated payment from a fixed portion of the fund depending on the amount of streams given by the charted composition or compositions.  The payout will be relative to the rate at which the streams amounted to, and claimants will also receive a share of funds based on the division of the total number of streams of artist compositions by the total amount of streams of qualifying musical compositions made without a license.

To follow more about the lawsuit and anything Spotify related, listeners can go here.