The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), an American collective of songwriters, has filed a lawsuit before the federal court in New York to claim the payment of royalties owed by the streaming platform Spotify, the collective alleges that there was underreporting by the company, generating a debit balance of 50% on the total revenue.
Spotify estimates that in 2023 the revenues of publishers and copyright collective management entities will have reached their record high and that in 2024 the revenue will be even higher. However, the collective entities believe that there may still be a loss of up to 150 million dollars in unpaid amounts, alleging that the platform violated the rules when classifying the audios, changing the category at the time of distribution and, consequently, reducing the royalty leave previously established for payment.
In the United States, the collective management of copyrights is promoted by entities appointed by the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO), in the case of streaming reproductions, this collection is the responsibility of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), appointed by the (USCO). The MLC also has the power to negotiate and provide licenses to digital platforms, such as Spotify. Subsequently, MLC also distributes royalties to artists.
Spotify itself, on its website, defines MLC control work as follows:
“MLC receives notices and reports from digital music providers, identifies musical works and their owners to make payments, and collects and distributes royalties to songwriters, lyricists, music producers, administrators, and CMOs.”
In Brazil, this management also follows very similar steps. In Brazil, ECAD is the body responsible for collecting and distributing music copyrights to authors and other owners. This body is managed by seven other associations representing different categories of members, such as composers, performers, musicians, publishers and affiliated phonographic producers.
—
Advogado(a) autor(a) do comentário: Ana Luiza Pires, Lígia Ferreira Marcondes Rocha e Cesar Peduti Filho, Peduti Advogados
—
Se quiser saber mais sobre este tema, contate o autor ou o Dr. Cesar Peduti Filho.
If you want to learn more about this topic, contact the author or the managing partner, Dr. Cesar Peduti Filho.
