No matter possession is on the helm, Napster and lawsuits go collectively like peanut butter and jelly.
Now underneath its sixth completely different proprietor for the reason that notorious peer-to-peer file sharing platform revolutionized the music trade, illegally, in 1999, the current iteration of Napster has been hit with a lawsuit from Sony Music Leisure over $9.2 million in unpaid royalties and licensing charges, its third this yr alone.
Sony’s lawsuit, filed August 1 in U.S. district court docket, alleges that the streaming platform’s guardian firm, Rhapsody Worldwide, is over a yr late on required funds for utilizing the foremost label’s catalog, “all whereas [continuing] to gather subscription charges from their hundreds of thousands of paying customers.” The criticism alleges that 4 licensing agreements have been violated.
Although the Napster most music followers know was shut down in 2001 after the RIAA, artists like Metallica and Dr. Dre, and a consortium of main labels, together with Sony, famously sued the corporate for copyright infringement, Rhapsody Worldwide bought its model likeness from Greatest Purchase in 2011 earlier than rebranding its personal service as Napster in 2016. Because the buy, Rhapsody has been purchased and bought 3 times.
When Web3 startup Infinite Actuality purchased Rhapsody Worldwide in March of this yr, the sale, per Music Enterprise Worldwide, triggered a clause in Napster and Sony Music’s licensing settlement that might have allowed Sony to interrupt the deal. On the time, Napster already owed Sony $6.79 million in overdue funds, in response to the lawsuit, however the main label agreed to proceed the contract so long as Rhapsody settled its money owed in a four-part fee plan. The primary three installments had been due by Could.
Since then, Sony claims Rhapsody has not made any earlier or new licensing funds, and terminated the contract with Napster in June. Sony’s catalog, nonetheless, stays obtainable to stream on the platform, with the label now looking for damages of “$150,000 per infringed work,” throughout a listing of 240 songs.
Sony Music isn’t the one firm that’s been stiffed by Napster as of late. In accordance with a January report from Billboard, no less than six labels and distributors have accused the platform of creating late royalty funds, together with Sonos and SoundExchange, which sued the corporate in June for over $3 million in unpaid royalties.
Featured picture courtesy: Napster.
