David Lowery, singer-songwriter and musician's rights advocate, has filed a class action lawsuit against Spotify, claiming that the streaming giant knowingly, willingly, and unlawfully reproduces and distributes copyrighted compositions without obtaining mechanical licenses, Billboard reported.
The lawsuit, filed in Central District Court of California on Dec. 28, is the latest action taken against the company by a musician, as reported by Reuters. Last year, Taylor Swift pulled her entire catalogue from its platform following the release of her album "1989."
The complaint points out that Spotify has unlawfully distributed copyrighted musical compositions to over 75 million users, but failed to identify or locate the owners of those compositions for payment. Moreover, it did not even issue a notice about its intent to reproduce and/or distribute the works.
"Spotify has a business model in which they use artists' music on their website without identifying the licence holder and without paying them royalties," Reuters quoted Mona Hanna, a lead attorney in the case. "This lawsuit seeks to hold Spotify accountable and protect the artists' rights against copyright infringement."
According to the complaint, statutory penalties allow for judgments between $750-30,000 for each infringed work, and up to $150,000 per song for willful infringement.
Jonathan Prince, Spotify’s global head of communications and public policy, said that the company is committed to paying songwriters and publishers every penny.
"Unfortunately, especially in the United States, the data necessary to confirm the appropriate rightsholders is often missing, wrong, or incomplete. When rightsholders are not immediately clear, we set aside the royalties we owe until we are able to confirm their identities. We are working closely with the National Music Publishers Association to find the best way to correctly pay the royalties we have set aside and we are investing in the resources and technical expertise to build a comprehensive publishing administration system to solve this problem for good", Prince said.
