The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has launched what it says is an “extensive” takedown action against Spotify.
The NMPA accuses the music streaming service of ignoring widespread violations of music copyrights on the podcasts it hosts.
The industry group for music publishers in the US said on Tuesday (February 4) that its first wave of takedown requests involves more than 2,500 “detected” infringements.
“These demands will continue,” the NMPA said in a statement.
“Spotify has thousands of unlicensed songs in its podcasts, which it has done nothing to remedy,” said NMPA President and CEO David Israelite today (February 4).
“This takedown action comes as no surprise, we have warned of this issue for some time.”
“Spotify has thousands of unlicensed songs in its podcasts, which it has done nothing to remedy.”
David Israelite, NMPA
The NMPA claimed that Spotify has been aware of music copyright violations by podcasters “for years,” but the platform “has taken no meaningful action” to address the issue.
UPDATE (12:00 PM ET on February 4):
A Spotify spokesperson has issued the following statement in response to the NMPA’s announcement: “This is a weak reaction to the judge dismissing the MLC’s lawsuit,” they said.
“Platforms like Spotify receive takedown requests daily, and, as always, we will act promptly and, where appropriate, remove the episodes in question.”
Spotify spokesperson
Added the Spotify spokesperson: “Last summer, the NMPA claimed that there were unlicensed works in podcasts on Spotify.
“The fact that the NMPA waited months, despite multiple written requests by Spotify for details, which they never bothered to answer, to report these episodes only further emphasizes that this is a press stunt.
“Platforms like Spotify, which are home to millions of pieces of UGC content, regularly receive takedown requests, and, as always, we will act promptly and, where appropriate, remove the episodes in question.”
In May 2024, the NMPA sent a letter to Spotify declaring that the streaming platform “displays lyrics and reproduces and distributes music videos and podcasts using musical works” without permission or compensation to songwriters and publishers.
That warning came amid a battle between song copyright owners and Spotify, which exploded when Spotify bundled its audiobooks service with its music streaming service, and reduced mechanical royalty payouts, something Spotify says is permissible under the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB)’s Phonorecords IV agreement.
Spotify’s reduction in mechanical payments triggered a lawsuit by The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), the body established under the US’s Music Modernization Act of 2018 to collect mechanical royalties from digital service providers on behalf of song owners.
Last week, Spotifybeat the lawsuit brought by the MLC over the streaming service’s decision to reclassify its Premium subscriptions as “bundles”.
On Wednesday (January 29), Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Spotify’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit “with prejudice”.
Those are just the latest twists in an ongoing saga between Spotify and publishers.
In 2019, Spotify, along with Amazon Music, went to court to appeal the CRB’s Phonorecords III agreement, under which mechanical royalty rates were to rise 44% between 2018 and 2022, from 10.5% of streamers’ US revenue to 15.1%. Spotify lost that appeal in 2022.
“Spotify will stop at nothing to undervalue songwriters on behalf of its bottom line,” Israelite said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Look no further than its recent bundling scheme and its ill-conceived appeal of songwriters’ rate increase in CRB III. We will not stop until the platform fixes its podcast problem, and all other areas where songwriters are not earning what they deserve.”
Israelite added: “Podcasts are a growing source of revenue for songwriters and publishers, and it is essential that podcasts provide lawfully produced entertainment.
“This is not hard to do, and Spotify knows, and has known, how to fix this problem for their users. We hope podcast hosts will stand up for their fellow creators and demand that Spotify do better.”Music Business Worldwide
