Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Spotify countersues Sosa Entertainment alleging stream fraud | Music Ally

In November 2019, we reported on the latest lawsuit filed against Spotify, from music company Sosa Entertainment and its sister firm Pro Music Rights. They claimed that Spotify had not paid the full royalties for more than 550m streams of the companies’ catalogues, while also referring to ‘false’ claims of stream manipulation against Sosa by Spotify. Well, those claims are getting a thorough airing now, as Spotify has countersued with its own lawsuit alleging that Sosa founder Jake Noch “designed a scheme to artificially generate hundreds of millions of fraudulent streams” and to “manipulate Spotify’s system to extract undeserved royalties at the expense of hardworking artists and songwriters”.

According to Billboard, Spotify’s countersuit claims that the DSP detected bot-driven spikes in Sosa’s catalogue in March 2016, eventually leading it to remove the company’s music from its service. “This was one of the most egregious fraudulent streaming operations from a single rights holder that Spotify had to deal with in its company’s history,” is Spotify’s line. Consider battle joined.

Stuart Dredge


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