Elon Musk’s X has filed an antitrust lawsuit against music publishers in the US.
The platform (previously Twitter) alleges that the companies and trade association NMPA colluded in an attempt to make X take out licences in order to host music.
X claims it is being prevented from pursuing individual licensing agreements. It has named 18 music publishers, including the three majors, as well as the National Music Publishers Association.
The lawsuit, filed in Texas, alleges that the publishers and NMPA attempted to “leverage monopoly power” to make the platform license with all the companies at inflated rates. X is seeking a court order allowing individual licensing and damages.
Music publishers originally filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against X (then Twitter) in 2023 alleging unauthorised use of music on the platform.
At the time, NMPA president & CEO David Israelite said: “Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service. Twitter knows full well that music is leaked, launched, and streamed by billions of people every day on its platform. No longer can it hide behind the DMCA and refuse to pay songwriters and music publishers.”
The two sides had been in legal discussions but X has now counter-sued.
PHOTO: Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images
