Sony Music In New Royalty Legal Battle With SiriusXM
Sony Music has filed to stop an arbitration begun by SiriusXM over the licensing of classic songs by Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and thousands of others.
The news comes nearly three years after the major labels struck a $210 million deal with the satellite radio giant over the use of sound recordings created before 1972. The deal gave SiriusXM the right to use pre-1972 recordings through the end of 2017, and indicated that the parties involved would be required to negotiate the terms of a new license for 2018-2022.
Court papers filed by Sony on Friday revealed that although SiriusXM and the record labels have exchanged proposals, an agreement has not been met and so arbitration will be necessary, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The papers also indicated a number of objections on Sony’s part to the manner in which SiriusXM has gone about the process, including the company’s selection of JAMS, a leading commercial arbitration firm, their consolidation of individual claims against each of the record labels in a single proceeding, and their demand that the arbitration occur in Los Angeles despite both companies being headquartered in New York.
In a statement made by SiriusXM, spokesman Patrick Reilly said: “In June 2015, we agreed with Sony and the other major record labels to license their pre-1972 sound recordings. We paid these labels $210 million and agreed to license the works through December 2022, with a simple mechanism for setting the future royalty rate if we were unable to agree. Sony’s decision to challenge our 2015 agreement is disappointing. It is again unfortunate to see that Sony is still uninterested in seeing older artists paid for their performances. SiriusXM will continue to honor its agreement to pay copyright holders for their pre-1972 works.”
