Spotify has been hit with a US Federal Trade Commission complaint from music publishers over its audiobook bundle

When this story is done and dusted, Spotify might wonder, ‘When we combined music and audiobooks to reduce the exchange rate of songwriters in the US, was it worth it?’

In April, Spotify announced its controversial decision to re-split Premium categories like ‘bundles‘ by combining music and audiobooks.

The move resulted in Spotify paying a lower royalty rate in the US to publishers and songwriters.

However, the world’s largest subscription music streaming service may not have expected how they are aggressive opposition to its merger decision will come from songwriters and publishers.

According to the head of the National Music Publishers’ Association, David Israelte, speaking at the NMPA Annual Meeting in New York today (June 12): “Spotify has declared war on songwriters. Our answer will be inclusive. “

So far, that “all-in” reaction from the music publishing community has included:

• The legal threat sent to Spotify comes from the National Music Publishers Association over the service allegedly hosting unlicensed lyrics on its site;
• A lawsuit was filed against Spotify by the US-based Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), accusing SPOT of allegedly underpaying songwriters and publishers;
• NMPA is asking Congress to revise copyright law in the United States to allow publishers to negotiate in a “free market” like record labels.

Today, a new head appeared for Spotify.

At the NMPA Annual Meeting, David Israelte revealed that the organization has filed a formal complaint against Spotify Federal Trade Commission “for the illegal conduct alleged by Spotify”, the NMPA says it “harms millions of consumers and the music market”.

Yes: NMPA filed this new FTC complaint on behalf of they don’t buy in the United States, instead of representing members of a trade association.

In the letter, obtained by MBW, and which you can read in full here, the NMPA states that “Spotify defrauded consumers by converting millions of its subscribers without their consent from music-only subscriptions to “combined” audiobook and music subscriptions. , publicly announcing inflated prices for subscriptions, failing to give subscribers the option to revert to music-only subscriptions, and thwarting cancellation attempts through dark patterns and confusing social media”.

In another letter, the NMPA says that “Spotify’s behavior has serious consequences” for music publishers and songwriters, who say, “Spotify is hurting by paying reduced fees based on the assertion that subscribers are now paying for more content than music”.

The letter adds: “Spotify are also competitors in the market who want to compete in a fair way. If allowed to continue, Spotify’s conduct will cost consumers millions of dollars, undermine the royalty system, and harm competition. We ask the FTC to investigate and stop Spotify’s misconduct.”

“Spotify has declared war on songwriters. Our answer will be inclusive. “

David Israel, NMPA

Israel also indicated that the NMPA has referred the matter to state attorneys general in Tennessee, New York, California, Colorado, Georgia, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington DC, North Carolina and Oregon. Israel said that these US states “have a strong interest in protecting songwriters, and that they have strong national laws that protect consumers”.

“We invite these state Attorneys General to investigate Spotify customers on this issue in their states, in violation of state laws designed to protect consumers from this type of deception and manipulation,” said Israel at the NMPA event today. .

In addition, today, Israel said that the NMPA has forwarded the matter to “several leading consumer advocacy organizations that we expect will oppose this type of consumer abuse, including the National Consumers League, the Consumer Federation of America, Citizens of the Community, Consumers.” Action, and truth in the advertising organization”.

Speaking to the audience at the NMPA Annual Meeting, Israelte said: “For anyone who thinks this is too bad, welcome to our kind of crowd. We will aggressively protect the rights of songwriters and music publishers, and this attack on songwriters will ultimately fail.”

He added: “Spotify knows what it is doing is dangerous and problematic. But what they hope is, the 44 million customers who never requested, or wanted, the audiobook bundle won’t go through the trouble of opting out of their overpriced fake bundle to rejoin the program they signed up for in the first place. – music program.

“Spotify has a way out: a reverse course. Based on the past I don’t expect it to happen. But it’s not too late for them to do the right thing.”

In October, Spotify began offering 15 hours of audiobooks with its Premium plans for free, in other words, ‘bundling’ access to audiobooks with its Premium services.

Along with its decision to separate its Premium music services as bundles due to the additional element of audiobooks, Spotify also made a move to offer different types of subscriptions focused on different types of content it offers.

The company launched a $9.99-a-month audiobook division in March in the US.

And in its Q1 earnings call on April 23, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek confirmed that a new ‘music-only’ subscription category is coming to the platform.

A new music-only category, Basic Individual, has quietly arrived in the UK this month. It costs £10.99 a month without access to audiobooks.

In the UK, Spotify’s Premium Individual tier, which includes 15 hours of audiobook listening per month, costs £11.99. Spotify has increased the price of its flagship Premium subscription plan in the UK to £11.99 in April, from £10.99.

The price point for the Basic Individual tier in the UK suggests that it will also cost $10.99 in the United States, when it eventually launches in the US.

Spotify has recently increased the price of the Premium tier in the US, where it is increasing by $1 per month $11.99.Music Business Worldwide