David Lowery Files $150 Million Lawsuit Against Spotify

Photo by Jason Thrasher

Artist rights advocate and Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery has brought a massive $150 million class action lawsuit against Spotify, as Billboard reports. The suit claims that the music streaming service intentionally distributed copyrighted material without securing the necessary mechanical licenses. (A mechanical license allows a party to reproduce copyrighted material.)

The new lawsuit was filed in California on December 28. The suit claims that Spotify distributed copyrighted material to over 75 million users without identifying the copyright holders, nor did they signal any intent to obtain licenses.

The suit claims that songs such as “Almond Grove”, “Get On Down the Road”, “King of Bakersfield”, and “Tonight I Cross the Border” were illegally distributed, and that statutory penalties allow for up to $150,000 for each instance of willful infringement.

Lowery is named as the class representative for the lawsuit, which also asks the court to make Spotify pay for the cost of a third party auditor to determine what works were illegally distributed, and to remove all disputed works from its catalog until obtaining the proper license. 

Spotify is also embroiled in settlement negotiations with the National Music Publishers Association, over claims it allowed users to access improperly licensed material. 

A previous study conducted by Lowery, who also fronts Cracker, prompted the National Music Publishers Association to file take-down notices against 50 lyric websites in 2013.

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