Spotify has agreed to pay approximately $30 million dollars in unpaid royalties and penalties in a settlement between the streaming giant and the National Music Publisher’s Association.
While Spotify has been hit with many lawsuits (and several kinds of shade) over the past several months, the NMPA settlement in particular has to do with royalties that weren’t paid due to songs being “unmatched” (meaning Spotify did not match the song with its rightholders and publishers) and other royalties that simply weren’t paid.
The details of the settlement have not been released. However, Billboard is reporting that Spotify will have to pay $25 million in unpaid royalties and an additional $5 million in penalties. The music magazine says that the settlement process will begin in early April, at which point NMPA members can opt-in to be included in the disbursement of the $25 million. Publishers will receive additional money out of the $5 million proportionate to their share of the streaming market.
Spotify released a statement that said the company has “always been committed to paying songwriters and publishers every penny”, adding that they “we look forward to further collaboration with [the NMPA] as we build a comprehensive publishing administration system.”
NMPA CEO David Israelite said he was “thrilled” with the settlement in a statement.
“We must continue to push digital services to properly pay for the musical works that fuel their businesses and after much work together, we have found a way for Spotify to quickly get royalties to the right people,” he said.
No word where any of that money is going to come from, since Spotify isn’t exactly a money-making machine.
