Spotify Settled Playlists Copyright Lawsuit

Finally, a dance brand Ministry of Sound and music streaming service Spotify have reached an out-of-court settlement in their lawsuit over music playlists. The dance brand sued Spotify six months ago, after the streaming service had refused to delete playlists based on Ministry compilations which had been created and shared by users.

Ministry of Sound sought an injunction to force Spotify delete the playlists and permanently block other playlists which copied the track listings of Ministry compilations, and used its brand name or artwork. This lawsuit was considered controversial in legal circles, because Ministry believed that while the individual tracks on the playlists had been legitimately licensed by the streaming service from their original labels, Ministry’s compilations should also be copyright protected due to the selection and arrangement involved.
Both parties recently issued a short statement to announce the settlement. Ministry of Sound’s CEO welcomed Spotify’s willingness to work together to reach an agreement, while head of licensing business affairs at Spotify said that both companies are “pleased to have reached a resolution on amicable terms”. Thus far, no details of the settlement have been made public, but the industry experts expect Spotify to remove the offending playlists from its search engine and block new users from “following” them on its service. Apparently, the playlists themselves won’t be deleted from the service.
Although many playlists can still be found on Spotify at the moment, they will stop appearing over the coming weeks. However, users will still be able to create Spotify playlists mirroring Ministry compilations for their own personal use.
The out-of-court settlement means that Ministry’s claim that music compilation track listings should be copyright protected won’t be ruled on by the High Court. But this case is likely to open the way for more positive discussions between the two parties – for instance, about creating the catalogue of Ministry’s label division available to stream, or to create an innovative business model for its compilations on Spotify.
Actually, the latter would be a tricky task, because Ministry of Sound doesn’t own the streaming rights to much of the tracks on its compilations. Although the brand could create official Ministry of