Music Publishers sue Napster for Alleged Unpaid Royalties,Seeking $36 Million
NEW YORK,NY – A coalition of music publishers,including Concord Music Publishing,Reservoir Media,and others,have filed a lawsuit against Napster alleging significant unpaid royalties for teh use of their copyrighted musical works. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on November 21, 2023, claims napster owes $36 million, calculated at $150,000 per infringed work based on a list of 240 songs. The complaint details alleged failures to properly account for and remit royalties due to the publishers.
This isn’t the first time Napster has faced legal challenges related to royalty payments. In 2022, Sony Music filed a similar lawsuit against Napster’s parent company, Triller, alleging millions in unpaid royalties.Triller ultimately admitted liability and settled for $4.5 million in 2023. More recently, billboard reported that at least six distributors and record labels have accused Napster of late royalty payments, and SoundExchange filed suit over unpaid royalties in October 2023.
Napster’s history is marked by a complex evolution from a pioneering,yet controversial,digital music platform to its current iteration. Originally launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, Napster quickly became synonymous with peer-to-peer file sharing and widespread music piracy. The Recording Industry Association of america (RIAA) successfully sued Napster in 2001, leading to the original service’s shutdown.
The Napster brand was resurrected in 2008 when Best Buy acquired the company’s assets for $12.9 million. In 2011, Best Buy sold Napster to Rhapsody International, the company behind the rhapsody streaming service. Rhapsody rebranded as Napster in 2016, marking a shift towards a legitimate streaming model.
As then, ownership of napster has changed hands multiple times.MelodyVR, a virtual reality live music platform based in London, purchased Napster in 2020 for approximately $75 million. In 2022,Algorand,a blockchain technology company,acquired Napster,aiming to integrate Web3 technologies into the music streaming experience. Most recently, in early 2023, Infinite Reality, a metaverse company led by John Acunto, became the owner of Napster. Infinite Reality acquired Napster as part of a larger deal encompassing MelodyVR.
The current lawsuit raises questions about the financial stability and operational practices of Napster under its latest ownership, and highlights the ongoing challenges in ensuring fair compensation for music publishers in the digital age. The case is Concord Music Publishing, et al.v. Napster, Inc., case number 23-cv-11423, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
