Pandora’s MLC Royalties Lawsuit Heads to Trial as Judge Declines to Sift Through ‘Corpulent’ Case File
Categoria: Musica
A judge was given 7,000 pages of documents to decide if Pandora's free tier qualifies for higher mechanical royalties. He skipped the task and called in a jury.
Por Billboard | 30/09/2026
A judge says it’ll take too long to review more than 7,000 pages of documents in litigation between Pandora and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), so he’s having a jury decide the fight over streaming royalties. The MLC, a group created by the Music Modernization Act to apportion mechanical royalties from streaming services, sued Pandora in 2024 for allegedly misclassifying its free tier to avoid paying the higher rates owed by “interactive” platforms like Spotify. The SiriusXM unit denies those claims, and both sides asked a judge earlier this year to enter judgment in their favor. But Judge Eli Richardson in Nashville federal court declined to even consider these requests in an unusual Wednesday (Sept. 30) court order, first obtained and reported by Billboard . Related Pandora Says MLC Lawsuit Over Streaming Royalties Must End: ‘Clearly Unconstitutional’ Judge Rules Woman Accused of Shooting at Rihanna & A$AP Rocky's Home Mentally Fit to Stand Trial Billboard to Add Smart Media Albums As Chart-Eligible Sales Formats In a typical summary judgment order, a judge weighs all the evidence collected by both sides in discovery and decides whether there are genuine factual questions requiring a jury trial. Judge Richardson didn’t do that here, though, citing the “corpulent” collection of 263 documents totaling more than 7,000 pages cumulatively submitted by the MLC and Pandora. “The court in its discretion finds that it would be more efficient to deal with all contested issues and examine the fulsome factual record at trial rather than expending the (very substantial) judicial resources necessary to dispose of the motions,” wrote the judge. Judge Richardson also noted in his order that the “huge volume” of documents in the case suggests to him that a trial would be unavoidable no matter what. “If a summary judgment motion requires so many different pillars of support, there naturally is an increased mathematical likelihood that one of the essential pillars is unsteady,” he wrote. “Or to put it differently, if a party has to file thousands of pages and hundreds of documents to explain why there is nothing for a jury to decide — i.e., to explain that, in today’s parlance, ‘there’s nothing to see here’ — then the volume suggests that there is indeed something for the jury to see.” A trial date is not currently scheduled. And there’s still the possibility that the MLC and Pandora could reach a settlement instead. In a statement to Billboard , Pandora emphasized that Wednesday’s ruling “was not a determination on the merits of the case.” “Pandora is committed to compensating songwriters and publishers in accordance with the law, and we remain confident in our position,” added the company. Related Can SoundExchange Bring Lawsuits? SiriusXM Appeal Will Shape Royalties Enforcement A spokesperson for the MLC said the group “welcomes” the chance to continue litiga