4 ms·

The pieces don't quite fit together here - Harry Fox handles a LOT of licensing (they're one of the places you can get mechanical licenses for cover songs via s

The pieces don't quite fit together here - Harry Fox handles a LOT of licensing (they're one of the places you can get mechanical licenses for cover songs via self-service) and I'd assume that a big contract for an organization the size of Spotify would include at least some indemnification for any legal issues. And, naturally, the damage amount is wildly unrelated to actual revenues - not quite the "one download on Napster == $250k" levels seen in copyright litigation against consumers, but still almost half of Spotify's likely revenue for 2017...

turc1656 9y ago
It's just a starting point for negotiation. Same way people slip in a store and sue for $1M, even though they end up settling for 50k.
- AnimalMuppet 9y ago
  It's also an attempt to force negotiation. "You want to negotiate a settlement with us, because if you lose..."
- dharmon 9y ago
  And think about the timing. Just before Spotify wants to go public? Nobody wants to go public with a pending lawsuit, so added pressure to settle.
  - nightcracker 9y ago
    > Nobody wants to go public with a pending lawsuit I'm pretty sure every large company in the world is involved in multiple lawsuits at any point in time (both offensively and defensively).
wrigby 9y ago
Yeah, saying HFA is ill-equipped to obtain mechanical licenses doesn't make sense to me. That's exactly the role they play. Maybe they didn't obtain performance licenses though?
jmngomes 9y ago
One thing that has always impressed me: how did Spotify obtain licenses for such a massive, international catalog of popular (and often, rare) music. Can anyone shed some light, e.g. who led this effort, what made it possible?
- spiralx 9y ago
  My knowledge is that the rights to some albums end being packaged and sold in large batches, which can lead to some oddness when only some of an artist's back catalogue is included - not that uncommon to see on Spotify, which also has albums appear and disappear as the rights change hands and deals get redone. So you can probably build a fairly large catalogue from a relatively small number of deals, I'm guessing it follows a rough 80/20 pattern.

turc1656 9y ago

It's just a starting point for negotiation. Same way people slip in a store and sue for $1M, even though they end up settling for 50k.

AnimalMuppet 9y ago
It's also an attempt to force negotiation. "You want to negotiate a settlement with us, because if you lose..."
dharmon 9y ago
And think about the timing. Just before Spotify wants to go public? Nobody wants to go public with a pending lawsuit, so added pressure to settle.
- nightcracker 9y ago
  > Nobody wants to go public with a pending lawsuit I'm pretty sure every large company in the world is involved in multiple lawsuits at any point in time (both offensively and defensively).

wrigby 9y ago

Yeah, saying HFA is ill-equipped to obtain mechanical licenses doesn't make sense to me. That's exactly the role they play. Maybe they didn't obtain performance licenses though?

jmngomes 9y ago

One thing that has always impressed me: how did Spotify obtain licenses for such a massive, international catalog of popular (and often, rare) music. Can anyone shed some light, e.g. who led this effort, what made it possible?

spiralx 9y ago
My knowledge is that the rights to some albums end being packaged and sold in large batches, which can lead to some oddness when only some of an artist's back catalogue is included - not that uncommon to see on Spotify, which also has albums appear and disappear as the rights change hands and deals get redone. So you can probably build a fairly large catalogue from a relatively small number of deals, I'm guessing it follows a rough 80/20 pattern.