AccuRadio, a notable music streaming service, has started bankruptcy proceedings in Chicago after prolonged failed negotiations with SoundExchange over increasing music royalty obligations. CEO Kurt Hanson expressed frustration over the legal impasse and cited the lawsuit filed by SoundExchange in 2024 which, despite attempts at reaching a consensus, resulted in a rejected settlement proposal. The company has reportedly paid over $13.5 million in royalties historically, emphasizing their reliability as a licensee. AccuRadioâs situation reflects broader difficulties faced by smaller streaming services within a challenging economic landscape.
AccuRadio has spent almost 25 years building an innovative and well-loved music streaming service while facing royalty obligations that climbed to levels that seem to suggest the system is rigged, perhaps inadvertently, against small and midsize streamers.
After many more months of negotiating in good faith during the litigation process, we were led to believe that our latest proposal would be accepted by SoundExchange with only minor modifications. However, eventually SoundExchange altered its position and rejected that proposal.
AccuRadio has been a consistently reliable SoundExchange licensee for the vast majority of the past two decades, having paid SX over $13,500,000 in royalties.
AccuRadio resumed full payments to SoundExchange months ago, and continu...
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