Eminem’s Publisher Has Reportedly Sued Spotify For Copyright Infringement

Eminem’s music publisher, Eight Mile Style, has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Spotify, alleging copyright infringement. The suit claims the steaming platform didn’t get proper licenses for the rapper’s music and wants Spotify to compensate the publisher for billions of streams.

There are two prongs to the suit, which was first reported today by The Hollywood Reporter. Spotify is accused of willfully ignoring Eight Mile Style’s ownership of Eminem’s catalogue when deciding how to pay out streaming revenue for his playback metrics.

Spotify also allegedly violated sections of the Music Modernization Act (MMA), which passed last October and is designed to help streamline the process by which artists, songwriters, producers, and rights holders get paid for online music streams.

According to the complaint, one of the central disputes is over how Spotify treated massive hits like Eminem’s Lose Yourself. Eight Mile Style claims the streaming service labelled the song and others as Copyright Control, or a song with unknown rights holders.

The complaint similarly alleges that Spotify did not go through the proper process to obtain a license for Lose Yourself and other songs, or determine who did own the licenses.

Eight Mile Style is accusing Spotify of hosting Eminem’s music, but not paying out the proper royalties, despite knowing full well who owns it. Spotify has not accounted to Eight Mile or paid Eight Mile for these streams but instead remitted random payments of some sort, which only purport to account for a fraction of those streams, the complaint reads.

Eight Mile Style seeks damages that could, at the extreme end, amount to billions of dollars. Eight Mile Style is also seeking statutory damages on a per song basis, with a total of 243 works in question.