{"id":79530,"date":"2024-04-16T18:03:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T22:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/04\/16\/pandora-hits-back-at-mlc-lawsuit-over-streaming-royalties-legally-incoherent\/"},"modified":"2024-04-16T18:03:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T22:03:47","slug":"pandora-hits-back-at-mlc-lawsuit-over-streaming-royalties-legally-incoherent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/04\/16\/pandora-hits-back-at-mlc-lawsuit-over-streaming-royalties-legally-incoherent\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandora Hits Back at MLC Lawsuit Over Streaming Royalties: \u2018Legally Incoherent\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tPandora is firing back at a lawsuit filed by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (the MLC) that claims the company has failed to properly pay streaming royalties, calling the case a \u201cgross overreach\u201d based on a \u201clegally incoherent position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe MLC \u2014 the group created by Congress in 2018 to collect streaming royalties \u2014 filed the lawsuit <\/a>earlier this year, accusing Pandora (a unit of SiriusXM) of misclassifying the nature of its streaming service to avoid paying the kind of higher royalties owed by \u201cinteractive\u201d platforms like Spotify.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe MLC Sues Pandora to Recover Unpaid Royalties, Late\u00a0Fees\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tBut in its first response to the case filed on Tuesday (April 16), Pandora calls the MLC\u2019s lawsuit a \u201cwild overreach\u201d that \u201cdistorts the Pandora experience\u201d \u2014 and one filed by an entity that is not even legally empowered to bring such cases.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe MLC \u2026 was intended to be a neutral intermediary charged with collecting and distributing royalties under the blanket license,\u201d Pandora writes. \u201cIt is not authorized to play judge and jury over a streaming service\u2019s legal compliance, nor was it created \u2026 to pursue legal frolics and detours such as this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPandora\u2019s lawyers also say the lawsuit is based on a \u201ca legally incoherent position\u201d that has never been raised by the music companies for whom the MLC is collecting royalties: \u201cThe MLC seems to think it knows something the entire music industry does not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA rep for the MLC did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the heart of the lawsuit against Pandora is the distinction between \u201cinteractive\u201d platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, which allow users to pick their songs on demand, and \u201cnoninteractive\u201d platforms that provide an experience more like radio. It\u2019s a key dividing line since interactive and noninteractive services pay very different royalties under different systems.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Pandora offers a premium tier with on-demand functionality, it has long treated Pandora Free \u2014 the core radio-like product that fueled the company\u2019s rise in the late 2000s \u2014 as a noninteractive service, since it largely serves users a mix of songs based on their preferences.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tWith the MLC\u2019s Re-Designation Underway, Streamers and Publishers Clash Over Its\u00a0Future\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tBut in a February lawsuit, the MLC argued that Pandora Free had crossed the line into \u201cinteractive\u201d status by offering so-called \u201cSponsored Premium Access\u201d sessions, which allow users to briefly play specific songs in return for watching ads. As a result, the MLC argued that Pandora owed the same kind of royalties for Pandora Free as services like YouTube or Spotify pay.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPandora provides even greater interactive access and functionality than these other ad-supported interactive streaming services,\u201d the MLC wrote. \u201cDespite the interactive functionality of Pandora Free, Pandora has failed to report in full Pandora Free usage to The MLC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Tuesday\u2019s response, Pandora\u2019s lawyers argued that the MLC\u2019s lawsuit \u201cbadly distorts reality\u201d by making a \u201cblatant mischaracterization of Pandora\u2019s offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their telling, the disputed \u201cSponsored Premium Access\u201d sessions are merely brief previews of the company\u2019s on-demand tier with \u201cstrict caps\u201d on usage \u2014 not a wholesale feature that would \u201ctransform\u201d Pandora Free \u201cinto an interactive service like Spotify or Apple Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s more, Pandora says that feature was explicitly negotiated with music companies, who have never once objected to it or argued that it required Pandora to \u201cfundamentally change its approach to licensing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe MLC apparently thinks it knows better than the entire music publishing industry,\u201d Pandora wrote. \u201cNot only is the MLC operating far outside its administrative bounds, but it is also completely wrong on the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking with Billboard<\/em> on Tuesday, George White<\/strong>, senior vp of music licensing at SiriusXM and Pandora, echoed the claims made by Pandora in the legal response.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe lawsuit is really a gross overreach, especially when you consider that Pandora is such a well-known and well-established non-interactive music streaming service,\u201d White said. \u201cThere are no checks and balances on the MLC. We believe that\u2019s something, as part of the MLC redesignation, that the Copyright Office really needs to consider.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhite was alluding to the Copyright Office\u2019s ongoing \u201credesignation process\u201d<\/a> of the MLC \u2014 a five-year check-up required by Music Modernization Act to ensure that the organization is functioning effectively. The first-ever redesignation started in January and is set to wrap up later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pandora is firing back at a lawsuit filed by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (the MLC) that claims the company has failed to properly pay streaming royalties, calling the case a \u201cgross overreach\u201d based on a \u201clegally incoherent position.\u201d The MLC \u2014 the group created by Congress in 2018 to collect streaming royalties \u2014 filed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}