According to stereogum.com, back in 1999, Sony Music Entertainment was one of several labels to sue Napster for copyright infringement and now, the company is suing the streaming service again for allegedly owing them over $9.2 million in unpaid royalties and licensing fees, while allegedly seeking $37.5 million for copyright infringement.
Napster was acquired by the Metaverse company Infinite Reality back in March and they are also targeted in the lawsuit, along with Napster’s parent company Rhapsody International. Sony claims Napster is allegedly collecting subscription fees from “millions of paying users,” while allegedly not fulfilling payments for over a year, which is allegedly now $9.2 million in total.
“When companies exploit Sony Music’s sound recordings for commercial benefit without authorization, this not only harms Sony Music by depriving it of compensation but it also reduces the incentive to invest in the creation and dissemination of new music,” Sony’s complaint reads.
The company adds: “For over a year, Defendants have failed to pay Plaintiffs the license fees and royalty payments as required by the Foundation Media Content License Agreement, Orchard Content License Agreement, Content Integration Agreement, and Framework Agreement, all while Defendants continued to collect subscription fees from their millions of paying users.”
When Infinite Reality bought Napster for $207 million, Sony said the deal would enable their right to terminate its agreements with Napster, “which would deprive [Napster’s parent] Rhapsody of the ability to stream plaintiffs’ valuable sound recordings.” Instead, Sony agreed to a payment plan that consisted of four installments. It would commence 15 days after the acquisition closed and would continue through January 2026. Napster allegedly failed to make any of the payments.
“Despite that termination, Defendants have continued to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform and otherwise exploit Sony Music Entertainment’s sound recordings on Napster, without any legal right to do so,” said Sony’s legal representatives.
Sony is seeking damages for alleged breach of contract up to $150,000 per infringed work, which could allegedly result in $37.5 million. Napster was also sued by SoundExchange and Sonos back in June allegedly for or over $3.4 million in unpaid copyright royalties.
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