Major music publisher Wixen sues Spotify for US$1.6 billion

Wixen Music Publishing Inc., which licenses music from around 200 artists that include Tom Petty, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, and the Doors, has sued music streaming service Spotify for US$1.6 billion for allegedly using thousands of songs” without the correct license. According to the lawsuit, Spotify didn’t get a direct or compulsory license from them to let them reproduce and distribute the songs. As mentioned in the complaint, “Prior to launching in the United States, Spotify attempted to license sound recordings by working with record labels but, in a race to be first to market, made insufficient efforts to collect the required musical composition information and, in turn, failed in many cases to license the compositions embodied within each recording or comply with the requirements of Section 115 of the Copyright Act.”

Wixen also claims Spotify outsourced the work to a third-party licensing and royalty provider, the Harry Fox Agency, which was “ill-equipped to obtain all the necessary licenses.” Spotify fired back by filing with the court an assertion that Wixen didn’t give its clients enough time to opt out of being included in the case. The lawsuit comes as a response to a $43 million settlement Spotify had with songwriters and publishers back in May, where the streaming service allegedly failed to pay royalties for songs it makes available to users.

Source: Reuters + The Verge

Quick holiday tips from Waze

‘Tis the season for gift shopping and giving, all kinds of festivities, and traffic, tons of it. Waze has a couple of tips to help you avoid the extra stress the season brings. According to the traffic and navigation app, the busiest time and day for Canadian roads across the country last year was December 22 between three and five in the afternoon. For those in smaller metros like Collingwood, Ontario and Canmore, Alberta, they see a significant rise in traffic this time of the year with double the number of Waze users on the road.

Now, if you want to get yourself in the spirit of the season, Waze and Spotify has some interesting nuggets to share about this. The most requested song unsurprisingly is Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. But the three other extremely popular tracks are It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas by Michael Bublé, What Child Is This by Lindsey Stirling, and Noel – Live by Chris Tomlin.

Spotify compiles your top tunes of 2017

With the amount of data Spotify has on you and your listening habits, it’s easy for the streaming service to do its yearly roundup of your favorite songs and artists of the year. That time of the year has come and you can find what songs have been on repeat in your playlists through the 2017 Wrapped site. It’ll show you everything from how many minutes of music you’ve listened to for the year, the number of songs you’ve listened to, the genres, and artists. It’ll generate two playlists for you. One is your top 100 songs of the year and the other it calls the “ones that got away,” which are songs Spotify thinks you should give a listen to based on what you’ve listened to throughout the year. You can, of course, share these results, if you dare, on social media.

Source: Mashable

Spotify now supports iPhone X

The iPhone X screen with and without the letterboxing

Might be a bit late when compared to other popular apps but better late than never we say. The iOS version of Spotify now supports the iPhone X’s 5.8-inch OLED display. This means you get to see more of things like track lists and search results on the screen as well as more artwork when you browse through albums and playlists. The 1,125 x 2,436 resolution display of the iPhone X allows for 20 percent more vertical space for content. Heavy users of the music streaming app might appreciate the update.

Source: MacRumors