Spotify Says They Overpaid Songwriters in 2018 — and They Want Their Money Back

If you thought bands were pissed about Spotify’s royalty rates before, wait’ll they hear about this. From Music Business Worldwide:

“It turns out, however, that there was some additional and under-reported complexity to the CRB decision concerning Spotify’s student discount offers and its family plan bundles – which allow up to six family members to stream Premium Spotify for a single price of just $14.99 a month.

“Because of this additional complexity, Spotify has now calculated that, retrospectively, according to the CRB decision, many music publishers actually owe it money for 2018, due to an overpayment based on the prior rates. And guess what? It wants that money back.”

The article continues:

“Spotify isn’t expecting the publishers to hand over the money that it’s owed right away; instead, this negative balance will be treated as an advance by the company, which will be recouped from its 2019 royalty payouts to publishers (and, by association, their songwriters).”

Needless to say, music publishers “are fuming” over Spotify’s claim. The streaming service is already appealing a US Copyright Royalty Board mandate to would raise pay rates for songwriters and publishers by 44% or more between 2018 and 2022.

You can read the entire article here.

[via Brooklyn Vegan by way of Metal Injection]