Spotify AB is facing a new class-action lawsuit headed by musician David Lowery over a claim of unpaid royalties.

Lowery, the lead singer of a band by the name of Cracker and also regarded as a “music copyright activist,” claimed in the suit filed on December 28 in the Central District Court of California that Spotify knowingly, willingly and unlawfully reproduces and distributes copyrighted compositions without obtaining mechanical licenses.

The sum asked for in damages for the alleged acts: a whopping $150 million.

Billboard reports that the complaint specifically claims that Spotify has unlawfully distributed copyrighted music compositions to more than 75 million users and then failed to identify or locate the owners of those compositions for payment. It also did not issue a notice of intent to employ a compulsory license.

Although the suit currently only has Lowery’s name on it, it was filed as a class action lawsuit, meaning that other allegedly aggrieved musicians no one has ever heard of may join the action at a later date.

“We are committed to paying songwriters and publishers every penny,” Spotify Global Head of Communications and Public Policy Jonathan Prince said in a statement. “Unfortunately, especially in the United States, the data necessary to confirm the appropriate rightsholders is often missing, wrong or incomplete. When rightsholders are not immediately clear, we set aside the royalties we owe until we are able to confirm their identities. We are working closely with the National Music Publishers Association to find the best way to correctly pay the royalties we have set aside, and we are investing in the resources and technical expertise to build a comprehensive publishing administration system to solve this problem for good.”

Nuts

Putting aside the fact that the lawsuit is asking for $750-30,000 for each infringed work, and up to $150,000 per song for willful infringement, it’s also nuts because it’s literally nothing more than a greedy musician seeking large sums of money from a company that is as much a victim of the broken nature of music royalty payments as this noddy nobody is as well.

The problem lies with the complexities of music licensing in and of itself, with multiple groups claiming royalties not only for bands and musicians, but songwriters and producers as well, and the word multiple has to be emphasized: While some countries have a centralized body that collects royalties, others don’t, and then there’s the fact that independent artists may not be a member of these bodies anyway … it’s a logistical nightmare to which Spotify does its best to cater to.

For Lowery, it’s also nothing more than a money-grabbing publicity stunt as well, as according to Wikipedia, the band Cracker has been signed to record labels including Virgin, Cooking Vinyl, and Savoy / 429 Records, and it would be the job of the record labels to make sure royalties were being paid to the band to begin with; why isn’t Lowery suing one of them for not doing their jobs correctly?

Last but not least, Lowery claims that Spotify “unlawfully distributed copyrighted music compositions to more than 75 million users,” but who does Lowery think gave Spotify the tracks and permission to feature them to begin with?

Here’s a hint: It wasn’t Santa Clause or the tooth fairy.

It’s not clear from reports if, or when, the action may eventually come before a judge.

Image credit: Wikipedia/CC by 3.0