Wixen Music Publishing is suing the music streaming service, Spotify, for a whopping $1.6 billion. The company claims Spotify is illegally using songs by artists such as Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, and Neil Young without proper license and compensation.
According to the lawsuit, “Spotify has repeatedly failed to obtain necessary statutory, or “mechanical,” licenses to reproduce and/or distribute musical compositions on its service. Consequently, while Spotify has become a multibillion dollar company, songwriters and theirpublishers, such as Wixen, have not been able to fairly and rightfully share in Spotify’s success.”
Randall Wixen put it clearly, stating, “We’re just asking to be treated fairly… All we’re asking for is for them to reasonably compensate our clients by sharing a miniscule amount of the revenue they take in with the creators of the product they sell.”
