Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery brought Spotify to court with a $150-million lawsuit that accused the music streaming company of releasing copyrighted material without securing the proper licenses with full knowledge of breaking the law. These licenses are called mechanical licenses and ensure that artists are getting paid for the music that they created.
Lowery claimed the songs “Tonight I Cross the Border,” “Get On Down the Road,” “King of Bakersfield,” and “Almond Grove” and others were all distributed to millions of users without following the proper copyright procedures, and ultimately accused the company of not giving the artists proper payment.
Spotify has recently reached a settlement with Lowery and other songwriters that have brought similar suits against them and have agreed to establish a fund “worth $43.4 million to compensate songwriters and publishers whose compositions the service used without paying mechanical royalties.” They also have pledged to continue working on improving their data collection system to make sure the correct artists are paid their royalties from now on.
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