{"id":2377,"date":"2025-06-07T01:14:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T01:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/sony-lawsuit-liveone-owes-licensing-fees\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T01:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T01:14:43","slug":"sony-lawsuit-liveone-owes-licensing-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/sony-lawsuit-liveone-owes-licensing-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Music Sues LiveOne, Claiming $2.6M in Past-Due Licensing\u00a0Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tSony claims in a new lawsuit that streaming platform LiveOne and its subsidiary Slacker Radio owe $2.6 million in unpaid licensing fees yet are refusing to stop playing the label\u2019s music, including tracks by Beyonc\u00e9, Miley Cyrus and Tate McRae.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe allegations come in a federal lawsuit Sony filed Friday (June 6) against LiveOne and Slacker, which LiveOne acquired in 2017<\/a> and has since folded into the LiveOne streaming app. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Slacker<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tSlacker Owes SoundExchange $10M In Unpaid Royalties, Judge\u00a0Rules\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tSony and Slacker have been doing business with each other since 2007 through a content distribution deal, according to the lawsuit. But Sony\u2019s lawyers say LiveOne and Slacker stopped making regular monthly licensing payments in August 2024 and now owe a total outstanding balance of $2.6 million.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the past several months alone, Slacker claims to have seen increasing commercial success, touting a surge in usage of the LiveOne app and a year-over-year surge in content views,\u201d write Sony\u2019s attorneys. \u201cDespite this self-proclaimed growth, Slacker\u2014true to its name\u2014has failed to make license payments to Sony Music as and when required under the agreement, and its parent, LiveOne, has likewise failed to live up to its guarantee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the lawsuit, Sony notified LiveOne and Slacker in March that it was terminating the content distribution deal in light of this contract breach. Sony says it \u201cexpressly informed\u201d them that further use of its music would constitute copyright infringement, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Sony\u2019s lawyers claim the LiveOne app is still streaming more than 200 of the label\u2019s songs \u2014 also including tracks by Doja Cat, Harry Styles, Justin Timberlake and Khalid.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSlacker\u2019s conduct has caused and continues to cause substantial and irreparable harm to Sony Music and its artists, while enriching defendants at the expense of Sony Music and its artists,\u201d write Sony\u2019s lawyers. \u201cBy this lawsuit, Sony Music seeks damages for Slacker and LiveOne\u2019s breach of the agreement and for defendants\u2019 willful infringement of Sony Music\u2019s copyrights since the March 15, 2025, termination of the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRepresentatives for Slacker did not immediately return Billboard<\/em>\u2019s request for comment on the claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit comes three years after Slacker and LiveOne faced a different lawsuit<\/a> over unpaid fees from SoundExchange, the nonprofit that collects and distributes royalties to record labels and artists. A federal judge ultimately ordered<\/a> the streaming companies to pay SoundExchange nearly $10 million in past-due royalties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sony claims in a new lawsuit that streaming platform LiveOne and its subsidiary Slacker Radio owe $2.6 million in unpaid licensing fees yet are refusing to stop playing the label\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[387,449,444,1423,1424,1425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-legal","category-legal-news","category-liveone","category-slacker","category-sony-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}