Spotify is facing a $1.6 billion lawsuit, issued by Wixen Music Publishing. Wixen is the licensee of songs from popular artists like Missy Elliott, Janis Joplin, Tom Petty, and Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks.
The Wixen Music Publishing Company claims that the streaming service did not have all the required licenses for them to offer some songs on their catalog. Some of these songs are owned by Wixen via copyright. Songs like "Free Fallin" by Tom Petty, "Light My Fire" by the Doors, and even works by Weezer, Missy Elliott, and The Beach Boys are included in the claim.
The suit was filed last Friday in the state of California, United States. Wixen's claim basically stated that Spotify did not have all the correct licenses to stream certain songs. They also said that the streaming service did not take all the steps in identifying the proper rights-holders to the songs in question.
The lawsuit also claims that Spotify does not adequately compensate Wixen's musicians and songwriters.
Wixen did claim that Spotify "attempted" to get all the proper rights to the songs. However, since the streaming service was in a rush "in a race to be first to market," it failed to get all the proper licenses yet still served the songs on its platform.
The music publishing company claimed that Spotify "failed in many cases to license the compositions embodied within each recording or comply with the requirements of Section 115 of the Copyright Act."
Meanwhile, Spotify itself filed a claim the very same day. The streaming service claimed that Wixen did not give their clients enough time to opt out of the legal action.
It is not the first time that Spotify has been plagued with allegations of failing to get the proper licenses for streaming music. They already have a $43 million settlement which was proposed back in May. It is a response to a complaint saying that labels are getting significantly more money than the artists.
