Spotify, reached agreement for the payment of unpaid royalties

Spotify has reached an agreement with the National Music Publishers Association for payment of royalty not properly paid. The streaming service will pay out about $ 21 million to turn to labels and authors: $ 16 million earmarked for payments of royalty and 5 million "bonus" for labels and authors who will sign the agreement, which covers all content distributed from Spotify debut until 30 June 2017.
The streaming service has been target of several legal actions on unpaid royalties, the last of which with a request for $ 150 million in damages. Spotify hopes that this agreement with the NMPA placate most of the complaints of the labels and authors, and establish a new starting point from which to move forward. In 2011, the NMPA has already signed an agreement with YouTube, for similar purposes, with most of the interested parties who decided to sign the agreement instead of groped alternative legal action.
David Israelite, president and CEO dell'NMPA said that the group will continue to work to ensure that the digital streaming services match properly and correctly royalties that should the parties concerned.
"I am glad that through this agreement the authors, independent and major label, will be able to get what they deserve. We must keep pushing digital services to pay adeguataente for the musical work that fuels their business and after so much work together we found a way to Spotify to pay royalties to the right people, "said Israelite.
Spotify has also agreed to work with the NMPA to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the payment of royalty and enable labels to adhere directly to an agreement with the streaming service that will help to avoid further legal hassles in the future.
Spotify claims to have always been committed to pay what needs to the owners of the rights, and is working with the NMPA to a system of management that avoids these problems in the future: "As we have said many times, we constantly strive to pay authors and publishers every penny. We appreciate the hard work dell'NMPA to ensure this agreement and we look forward to further cooperate with them to build a complete system of administration. "
Labels and authors will be able, from the month of April and for a period of three months, to use a special portal to reclaim unpaid royalties. Any funds not claimed after three months will be distributed among labels and authors on the basis of their market share on Spotify.