SiriusXM has voluntarily dismissed its counterclaims against SoundExchange, though the underlying unpaid royalties battle is still in full swing. Photo Credit: SoundExchange
Less than three months later, SiriusXM has dropped its counterclaims against SoundExchange in their high-stakes legal battle over allegedly unpaid royalties.
That interesting move from SiriusXM emerged in a brief notice of dismissal, after the satellite radio giant fired off the counteraction in mid-August. Among other things, said counteraction sought the recoupment of certain allegedly overpaid royalties and accused the plaintiff of enlisting a biased accounting firm to audit SiriusXM financials.
Meanwhile, SoundExchange in the original complaint accused SiriusXM of failing to pay over $150 million in owed royalties due largely to alleged revenue misrepresentations in joint satellite and online radio packages. We broke down the suit in detail at the time of its filing last year; a venue change and additional factors have made for a plodding showdown thus far.
But in short, there are different royalty-calculation requirements in place for satellite and digital packages, with deductions available for satellite-digital bundles to prevent double-paying on one revenue source. In more words, SoundExchange accused the defendant of inflating the value of webcasting (or online listening) offerings so it could cough up smaller royalty payments on bundles.
Also as covered by DMN, SiriusXM refuted the allegations, urged the court to toss the suit, and even made a push for counterclaim damages.
As initially highlighted, however, SiriusXM’s months-old counterclaims are no more. SoundExchange has yet to respond, the dismissal notice reiterates before underscoring that the counterclaims “hereby are voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.”
Absent from the concise legal text is any mention of the reason(s) behind the abrupt dismissal. Though the obvious answer is that the involved parties are nearing some sort of resolution – albeit in a far different situation, SoundExchange recently came to a temporary agreement with AccuRadio – evidence suggests little progress has been made towards resolving the broader issues at hand.
For instance, it was only last week that the judge approved a jointly proposed briefing schedule for SiriusXM’s 12(c) motion to toss the complaint. Per the order, the defendant’s moving brief has an October 28th deadline, SoundExchange will have until November 26th to submit its opposition brief, and a SiriusXM reply brief will then be due back by December 18th.
Closer to the present, a status conference took place on the 17th and was added to the docket yesterday, with related letters to the court seemingly pointing to continued disagreements between SiriusXM and SoundExchange.
Separately, SiriusXM is also embroiled in a rate court dispute with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), as the two have apparently failed to reach an agreement on terms for 2022 through 2026.