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Eminem's music publisher, Eight Mile Style, has filed a lawsuit against Spotify alleging copyright infringement. The lawsuit claims that the steamed platform did not get the proper licenses for the rapper's music and wants Spotify to compensate the publisher for billions of streams.
There are two parts to the lawsuit, which was reported for the first time today by The Hollywood Reporter. Spotify is accused of deliberately ignoring the ownership of the Eminem catalog by Eight Mile by Eight Mile Style when deciding how to pay broadcast revenue for its reading metrics. Spotify is also reported to have violated articles in the Modernization of Music Act (MMA) passed last October to simplify the process by which artists, songwriters, producers and rights holders are paid for music streams. online.
According to the complaint, one of the most controversial disputes is how Spotify was treating huge successes like Eminem's "Lose Yourself". According to Eight Mile Style, the streaming service qualifies the song and others as "Rights Control", or a song with unknown rights holders. The complaint also alleges that Spotify did not follow the appropriate process to obtain a license for "Lose Yourself" and other songs, or to determine to whom these licenses belonged. "Lose Yourself" was written for a movie starring Eminem – a film of the same name as the publisher itself! – who won an Oscar in the category Best Original Song.
Instead, Spotify has retained Eminem's music on the platform, where the artist has gathered more than 32 million listeners a month. Some of his songs have been broadcast hundreds of millions of times. Eight Mile Style accuses Spotify of hosting Eminem's music, but not paying the appropriate royalties, even though he knew very well who he belonged to. "Spotify did not count Eight Mile or pay Eight Mile for these flows, but instead sent random payments of some sort, supposed to represent only a fraction of those flows," reads in the complaint. Spotify has not responded to a request for comment.
According to Eminem's publicist, Dennis Dennehy, the artist is not a party to the lawsuit, Eight Mile Style being owned by the same group, which owns the music publisher FBP Publishing, and has Eminem sign its first agreement production and publication. As a result, Eight Mile Style owns the first part of its catalog. Dennehy tells The edge Eminem and his team were "as surprised as anyone by this news".
Richard Busch represents Eight Mile Style in the trial; THR Busch reports is a heavyweight right that lurks behind many precedent cases in music publishing and copyright law. This includes the successful lawsuit filed by Marvin Gaye's family against "Floue Lines" songwriters, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and TI Busch also represented Eight Mile Style as part of a landmark lawsuit in 2010. against Apple and Universal Music Group. This lawsuit, although settled, would have resulted in favorable changes to the artists 'and labels' attitudes toward converting digital downloads to physical sales. This has transformed the way royalties were paid when iTunes dominated the music industry, THR reports.
Eight Mile Style claims damages of up to billions of dollars. Spotify, which was released last year, is now valued at $ 26 billion. Eight Mile Style also claims legal damages per song, for a total of 243 works. This could cause Spotify to pay tens of millions, although if Eight Mile Style manages to disqualify Spotify from protection under the MMA, it could face tougher financial penalties.
Updated August 21st at 8:18 pm ET: Include details about Eminem's relationship with Eight Mile Style and the fact that he is not a party to the lawsuit.
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