Songs by Tom Petty, Neil Young and the Doors are just some of the titles licensed by music publisher Wixen. The company is suing Spotify, claiming it didn’t obtain the rights to distribute thousands of songs.
Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. holds the rights to songs of major artists including Neil Young, The Doors, Tom Petty, Santana, The Beach Boys, Janis Joplin and Missy Elliott.
Those songs are also part of Spotify’s 30 million-song catalog — but Wixen is claiming that the Swedish streaming company has failed to obtain permission to distribute over 10,000 titles it manages. The music publisher is now suing Spotify for alleged copyright violations.
Wixen said it is seeking $150,000 in damages for each song, the maximum allowed for copyright damages — for a total of at least $1.6 billion including lawyers’ fees.
“While Spotify has become a multibillion dollar company, songwriters and their publishers, such as Wixen, have not been able to fairly and rightfully share in Spotify’s success, as Spotify has in many cases used their music without a license and without compensation,” reads the explanation for the lawsuit filed last week in a federal court in Los Angeles.
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