Apple Music is facing a lawsuit over unpaid royalties.
An indie musician claims that Apple Music has streamed
his music and failed to pay mechanical royalties.
Independent musician Bryan Eich filed a class action lawsuit
against Apple Music. Eich claims that the company failed to attain
compulsory mechanical publishing licenses for his work. He owns the
publishing rights to two albums, Devil in Disguise and Sleeping
By A Wire, covering 18 tracks.
Eich wrote that Apple Music (formerly Beats Music) failed to
serve him a Notice of Intent to Obtain Compulsory License (NOI). That’s a
pre-requisite for securing a mechanical license, though it’s a step that most
streaming providers failed to take (including Spotify).
The Cupertino-based company then allegedly engaged in a
“systematic process of infringement.” Eich brought the lawsuit on behalf
of himself and “a putative class of independent artists.”
So, you may be thinking that your record label is
stealing from you, but in reality the fraudsters are the ones you’ll be
thinking about last.