Spotify has asked a US federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) over the streaming service’s decision this spring to reclassify its Premium paid subscription as a “bundle” that includes both music and audiobooks.
The move effectively lowers the mechanical royalty payouts to music publishers and songwriters in the US, drawing the ire of large parts of the US music industry, and resulting in a lawsuit from The MLC, the body tasked by US law to collect mechanical royalties.
Spotify had previously notified Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that it planned to file a motion to dismiss – a move outright rejected by The MLC.
“The MLC opposes Spotify’s proposed motion to dismiss because it is based on mischaracterizations of the well-pleaded allegations in the MLC’s complaint, new purported facts that go well beyond or contradict the MLC’s pleading, and merits-based arguments that are inappropriate on a motion to dismiss,” lawyers for The MLC said in a letter to Judge Torres in June.
In a memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss, filed with the court on Tuesday (August 27), Spotify argued the case centers around “an easily answered question: Is audiobook streaming distinct from music streaming, offering greater than token value? The answer is indisputably yes, and there is no need for federal court litigation to confirm it.”
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Spotify asks court to dismiss MLC lawsuit over cutting pay rate to songwriters via premium bundles
