Spotify Wins Legal Dispute Over Licensing Rights for Eminem’s Music

Spotify has emerged victorious in a court case where it faced allegations of streaming Eminem’s music without proper authorization.

The lawsuit, filed in 2019 by Eight Mile Style, the publishing entity representing the rapper, contended that Spotify had not secured the appropriate licenses for his tracks.

The publisher sought approximately £30 million in damages, arguing that Eminem had not received adequate compensation for popular songs such as Lose Yourself and Without Me, which have been streamed billions of times on the platform.

Nevertheless, a judge in Tennessee ruled that Spotify would not be liable for any unpaid royalties, even while recognizing that the platform did not possess the required licenses for the songs in question.

The court further concluded that, should there be any copyright violations, the financial responsibility would rest with Kobalt Music Group, which managed royalty distributions for Eminem’s publisher.

When Eight Mile Style first brought the lawsuit against Spotify, it accused the service of “acting deceptively” by asserting it held licenses for 243 of Eminem’s tracks when it did not. The publisher also alleged that Spotify made “random payments” for songs that had been streamed hundreds of millions of times, indicating that these payments represented only “a fraction of those streams.”

Throughout the protracted five-year legal proceedings, Eminem’s music remained accessible on Spotify, where he continues to be the 12th most-streamed artist, boasting 76 million monthly listeners.