X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against music publishers and their trade organization, accusing them of violating antitrust law by conspiring to force X into accepting licensing deals.
The case, filed in federal district court in Dallas, alleges that the music publishers “collaborated” with their trade group, the National Music Publishers’ Association. According to the complaint, the music groups “weaponized” the copyright takedown process to pressure X into agreeing to blanket licensing deals for songs “at inflated rates,” which the platform said left it no room to enter into smaller deals with individual publishers.
The publishers and the trade group, known as NMPA, “conspired to leverage their combined market power,” the lawsuit says, “and coerce X into licensing musical works from the industry as a whole, denying X the benefit of competition among music publishers.”
The suit seeks unspecified damages, as well as an injunction preventing the music groups from continuing to negotiate in the manner described in the suit.
The suit was filed in the Northern District of Texas, where X recently led cases. The company instituted a policy in 2024 that all user appeals against it must be filed there — although X’s headquarters in Bastrop, Texas, is not part of that district. The Northern District is known for rulings favorable to conservative litigants.
David Israelite, executive director of the NMPA, said in a statement: “X/Twitter is the only major social media company that does not license songs on its platform. We allege that
Music publishers represent copyrights for writing and composition, which are separate from copyrights for recordings.
X’s lawsuit is the latest volley in a series of conflicts between the music industry and the social media platform, previously known as Twitter.
Long before Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and renamed it, music groups were trying to convince him to agree to licensing deals like those made by most social media platforms. These agreements allow platforms to host copyrighted works and allow artists – and the record labels and music publishers they are signed to – to earn money from posts using their material.
In 2013, Twitter briefly launched a music app, which was shut down after a few months. As of 2021, the company was exploring licensing deals with major music conglomerates, but those discussions were halted once Musk took over the platform.
In 2023, after those negotiations failed, music publishers and the NMPA sued Twitter in federal court in Nashville, claiming the company violated copyright law by allowing users to post music to the platform without permission.
That case also detailed what the publishers said was Twitter’s failure to police widespread violations of copyrighted music on the service, saying the company “systematically ignores known repeat infringers.”
In its own complaint – filed in another court –
The music companies’ lawsuit against X is still ongoing, although its claims were reduced in 2024 by the judge in the case.
