A couple of years ago a class action lawsuit started against Spotify. It alleged that the Swedish streaming platform used unlicensed music and was accused of defrauding artists. Two years later, it appears that the company has reached an agreement with the judge in the United States. This settlement reflects that they will pay a large amount to settle the lawsuit.
The company was accused of failing to pay adequately for the licences needed to play certain pieces of music. Therefore, some of these pieces were reproduced without the company having any license.
So the streaming platform would have been playing music illegally. They have therefore reached an agreement, for which they are supposed to pay $112 million. Of this amount, some 43.5 million will go to the artists and labels affected by these actions of the company. No doubt, a significant outlay of money for the firm.
Spotify has consistently stated that they did not give up paying, but that it is difficult to find some publishers and the people who manage their licenses. Although they have claimed that they were setting aside the corresponding funds to pay these royalties.
So far, Spotify has not made a statement on the matter, although it is expected to be more forthcoming today. But it is certainly a setback for the Swedish company, as it is a large amount of money.