Sirius XM Agrees to Pay SoundExchange $150M in Settlement Over Unpaid Royalties

Sirius XM Radio Inc. last week agreed to pay $150 million to SoundExchange Inc., settling two lawsuits alleging the satellite radio provider underpaid due performance royalties.  

According to a filing by parent company Sirius XM Holdings Inc. to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday (June 11), Sirius XM entered a deal last Thursday saying it would pay SoundExchange the total in a one-time lump sum on or before July 7, 2018. This resolves all outstanding claims under Sirius XM’s statutory license for sound recordings ranging from 2007-2017. 

“We are happy to resolve this case with SiriusXM,” said SoundExchange president and CEO Michael Huppe in a statement. “The settlement allows us to distribute additional royalties to SoundExchange’s artists and rights owners while avoiding additional costly litigation.”

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SoundExchange says the settlement funds will be distributed to rights owners and artists whose sound recordings were used during the settlement period.

SoundExchange is a nonprofit collective rights management organization that collects performance royalties from digital music services on behalf of record labels and artists. It sued Sirius XM in 2013 claiming the radio service refused to pay for recordings made before 1972 and then again in December alleging it underpaid the organization by understating gross revenues.