Pandora’s MLC Royalties Lawsuit Heads to Trial as Judge Declines to Sift Through ‘Corpulent’ Case File
A judge was given 7,000 pages of documents to decide if Pandora's free tier qualifies for higher mechanical royalties. He skipped the task and called in a jury.
A federal judge in Nashville has ruled that the trial over a lawsuit filed by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) against Pandora for alleged misclassification of streaming royalties will proceed, despite the extensive evidence involved. The MLC, established under the Music Modernization Act to distribute mechanical royalties, sued Pandora in 2024, claiming the company improperly classified its free tier to avoid paying higher rates owed by "interactive" platforms like Spotify.
Pandora denies these allegations. Initially, both parties requested a judge to enter judgment in their favor, but Judge Eli Richardson declined to consider these motions due to the overwhelming number of documents - more than 7,000 pages. Instead, Richardson decided to allow a jury to decide the case, stating that the "corpulent" collection of documents would be more efficiently handled at trial.
He also noted that the sheer volume of evidence suggests a trial is inevitable, as the parties would struggle to support all their claims with the available resources. While a trial date has not yet been set, the MLC and Pandora could potentially reach a settlement. Pandora emphasized that the ruling does not determine the merits of the case and remains confident in its position.
The MLC welcomed the continuation of the litigation, stating they will pursue Pandora's royalty payment obligations under the statutory license.
Written by urgent.news from Billboard's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
