It's only come to light today that Wixen Music Publishing filed a copyright lawsuit against Spotify on December 29, 2017. Wixen is an independent music publisher that was formed in 1978 by Randall Wixen. Wixen administers more than 50,000 songs written and/or owned by its more than 2,000 clients, including songs by some of the most popular and acclaimed musical artists of the last 100 years. Wixen is the exclusive licensee of thousands of musical compositions and artists like Neil Young, Tom Petty, the Doors, Stevie Nicks and more. Wixen claims that Spotify has used their copyrighted material without a license.

Their actual copyright lawsuit states under the segment 'Nature of the Lawsuit,' that "Wixen brings this action against Spotify for willfully infringing the copyrights in the musical compositions listed in Exhibit A (each a 'Work' and collectively the 'Works'). Wixen is an independent music publisher and exclusive licensee of the Works, all of which have either been registered or are pending registration with the United States Copyright Office. Spotify is the world's most dominant music streaming and limited downloading service. As Spotify has publicly admitted, and as recent lawsuits and settlements confirm, Spotify has repeatedly failed to obtain necessary statutory, or 'mechanical,' licenses to reproduce and/or distribute musical compositions on its service. Consequently, while Spotify has become a multibillion dollar company, songwriters and their publishers, such as Wixen, have not been able to fairly and rightfully share in Spotify's success, as Spotify has in many cases used their music without a license and without compensation.

A recent proposed settlement involving rights holders and Spotify in the class action lawsuit Ferrick et al. v. Spotify USA Inc. et al does not adequately compensate Wixen or the songwriters it represents. Wixen has and, to the extent not yet effected, will opt out the Works from the Proposed Settlement."

For more details on both of these cases, review the full Class Action lawsuit filings below provided to you courtesy of Patently Apple.

Wixen Music Publishing, Inc v. Spotify USA Inc Copyright Infringement by Jack Purcher on Scribd

In December Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple is hit with a Music Copyright Lawsuit by Music Artist Bryan Eich," for Beats Music, now Apple Music not paying artists properly.

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