Elon Musk’s X Takes Legal Action Over Music Licensing Practices
Social media platform X Corp has launched a high-stakes federal antitrust lawsuit against 18 prominent U.S. music publishing companies and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), claiming coordinated efforts to restrict fair market access and force industry-wide licensing terms.
Filed in a Texas federal court, the complaint alleges that these publishers, which represent a large majority of copyrighted music in the United States, refused to negotiate individual music licensing deals with X, instead pushing standardized agreements that the company says stifle competition and inflate costs.
Allegations of Collusion and Competitive Harm
According to the lawsuit, X claims that the defendants conspired to block competitive licensing negotiations, forcing the platform to accept blanket terms. The filing asserts that this alleged collusion violates U.S. antitrust laws and has created a de facto monopoly in digital music licensing.
X also argues that the National Music Publishers’ Association allegedly ‘weaponized’ digital copyright enforcement, flooding the platform with weekly takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to coerce compliance with industrywide licensing terms. These actions, according to the complaint, led to the removal of thousands of posts and suspension of over tens of thousands of user accounts, hurting both user engagement and advertising revenue.
Industry Reaction and Broader Legal Context
The music publishing group’s president has pushed back, asserting that X has consistently failed to secure proper licensing and has infringed copyrights — framing the lawsuit as a diversion from X’s licensing compliance issues. Some major publishers, including Sony Music, have expressed support for the association’s stance, while others, such as Universal Music and Warner Chappell, have not publicly commented.
This legal move marks a new chapter in a longstanding dispute between X and music rights holders. Previous litigation dating back to 2023 involved music publishers suing X for alleged copyright infringements related to unlicensed music posts — claims that were largely dismissed in 2024.
