Spotify wins lawsuit over streaming Eminem's music without proper licensing

Eight Mile Style sued Spotify in 2019, alleging it failed to properly license Eminem's tracks.

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

The lawsuit was initiated in 2019 by Eight Mile Style, the rapper's publishing company, claiming that Spotify had failed to properly license his tracks.

The publisher sought roughly £30m in damages, asserting that Eminem had not been fully compensated for hits like *Lose Yourself* and *Without Me*, which have "been streamed on Spotify billions of times."

However, a Tennessee judge ruled that Spotify would not be responsible for any unpaid royalties, despite acknowledging that Spotify lacked the necessary licenses to stream the songs.

The court also determined that, in the event of copyright infringement, any financial penalty would fall on Kobalt Music Group, which handled royalty payments on behalf of Eminem's publisher.

This case highlights the complexities of managing music rights in the streaming age.

When Eight Mile Style initially sued Spotify, it accused the platform of "acting deceptively" by claiming to have licenses for 243 of Eminem's songs when it did not.

The publisher also claimed that Spotify made "random payments" for tracks that had been streamed hundreds of millions of times, saying the payments only reflected "a fraction of those streams."

Interestingly, Eminem was not involved in the lawsuit and reportedly did not know about it until the case was filed.

"[We are] just as surprised as anyone else by this news," his publicist told The Verge at the time.

Throughout the five-year legal battle, Eminem’s music continued to be available on Spotify, where he remains the 12th most-streamed artist with 76 million monthly listeners.