PRS for Music wants to take Soundcloud to court

Aug 28, 2015 13:25 GMT  ·  By

Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS) is suing Soundcloud for failing to pay royalties to its artists for the past five years.

PRS for Music is a UK-based copyright collection society and performance rights organization formed in 1997, which manages licensing for musical works in the UK and Europe.

According to a letter which it sent out to all of its artists, seen by Music Week staff, the group is preparing for a lawsuit with Soundcloud, today's biggest Internet music-streaming service.

Five years of unsuccessful negotiations between PRS and Soundcloud

The two have been in serious negotiations for around five years, during which time, Soundcloud has declined to pay royalties for any of PRS' artists.

"Unfortunately, the organization [continues] continues to deny it needs a PRS for Music license for its existing service available in the UK and Europe," as was noted in the PRS letter which you can read in full below.

Soundcloud's response, which has been sent out to multiple media agencies, highlights a certain smugness when it comes to paying the music rights in question.

"SoundCloud is a platform by creators, for creators. No one in the world is doing more to enable creators to build and connect with their audience while protecting the rights of creators, including PRS members."

This is not the first time SoundCloud has copyright-related problems

No wonder the negotiations broke down. And this kind of attitude is what probably led Sony and Universal to pull their music off the platform earlier in May and June.

This whole affair is starting to look a whole like the Grooveshark debacle from a few years back, which eventually got the service closed down this spring.

Regardless if the service is boasting it has 175 million registered users, being popular amongst users never protected anyone from legal disputes. Right Napster and Grooveshark?

Soundcloud execs have a deal in place with Warner Music, but if one of these music groups sues and wins, the others will definitely smell blood in the water and come all crashing on Soundclound's parade.

PRS For Music Letter