The UK songwriters’ performing rights organization named PRS for Music is taking legal action against SoundCloud for failure to pay the music creators royalties when their works are used on the website.

[QUOTEPRS for Music explained to its members that after careful consideration, the organization found out that it has no alternative but to start legal proceedings against the streaming service. SoundCloud was launched in 2008 and now has over 175m users per month, having operated without music licenses until 2014, when it decided to launch a subscription service. This was when the Warner Music Group and other independent labels agreed to license the service in the United States.

However, record label licenses only cover the recordings, not the compositions or songs. In other words, even despite the fact that the US National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has licensed SoundCloud, it still has no licenses in place with any performing rights organization. Indeed, the lack of the service’s proper licensing has been a subject of criticism for many years.

In response, SoundCloud said it was a pity that PRS decided to start litigation in the midst of an active commercial negotiation with SoundCloud. The streaming service claimed that such approach does not serve the best interests of any of the parties involved, especially the members of the PRS, many of whom are active users of SoundCloud and use it to share their music and keep in touch with their fanbase.

SoundCloud claimed it is working hard to create a platform where all music creators can be paid for their work. The service points out that it already has deals in place with thousands of copyright owners, including labels, publishers and indie artists.

Thus far, it is unclear whether the legal action can result in the service removing all tracks of PRS members from the site.][/QUOTE]