#streamingroyalties

Pandora settles comedians’ lawsuit over streaming royalties 🎤⚖️

Pandora Media, owned by SiriusXM, has quietly reached a confidential settlement in a lawsuit brought by well-known comedians, including the estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin.

At the heart of the case was a deceptively simple IP question with big consequences: when a platform streams stand-up comedy, is it only licensing the sound recording, or is it also using the comedian’s jokes as literary works that deserve separate royalties?

While the settlement terms haven’t been made public, the dispute highlights a growing pressure point in the streaming economy. As platforms move beyond music into comedy, podcasts, and spoken-word content, old licensing models are starting to crack. The line between recordings and underlying works matters—and creators are increasingly unwilling to let it blur without fair compensation.

This case is another reminder that intellectual property law often trails behind new formats, and that creators are becoming far more vigilant about how their work is used and monetized online.

🚨 Hendrix Classic Albums in a Major UK Rights Battle with Sony

The legendary music of The Jimi Hendrix Experience is now at the center of a high-profile performers’ rights lawsuit in London. The estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell claim they deserve a share of the sound-recording copyrights and modern streaming royalties from the band’s iconic albums:

🎸 Are You Experienced 🎸 Axis: Bold As Love 🎸 Electric Ladyland

These records shaped the psychedelic era and continue to earn significant revenue decades after release.

📌 Why the lawsuit now?

The estates argue that contracts from the 1960s and early 1970s never anticipated digital music, streaming platforms, or modern exploitation models. Because of that, they say the original agreements don’t cover Spotify-era royalties.

📌 Sony’s Response

Sony claims the band signed agreements allowing exploitation of the music “by any method now known or hereafter to be known,” and that Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding later settled earlier disputes in the 1970s.

Sony also warns that if the estates win, it could trigger a wave of lawsuits from musicians of the ’60s and ’70s — potentially disrupting the entire music industry.

📌 What’s at stake?

This case could influence:

• How music rights from the analog era apply in the digital age • How streaming royalties are shared • The interpretation of legacy contracts • The future of performer rights

A truly significant moment for music, copyright, and creative rights in the streaming era.