SiriusXM has formally responded to a $150 million lawsuit filed by SoundExchange in 2023 over royalty payments that allegedly went unpaid. Not only is the satellite broadcaster vigorously denying any wrongdoing, but now they say SoundExchanges owes them money instead.
SoundExchange’s case, recently moved from Virginia to the Southern District of New York, claims that SiriusXM distorted royalty payment calculations by inflating the value of the webcasting components in their service packages compared to its Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services.
By operating the only SDARS in the continental US and offering webcasting services, SiriusXM says it has remained in compliance with statutory licensing requirements for music delivery and payments to SoundExchange but rejects claims of unpaid royalties in its Answer and Counterclaims. In fact, the company argues that it overpaid royalties during a period when it was refining its revenue calculation methods, which included conducting surveys to understand subscriber usage patterns.
SiriusXM is now seeking to recoup these overpayments by challenging the independence of the accounting firm hired by SoundExchange to audit its 2018 royalty payments. The company claims that Adeptus Partners showed bias in favor of SoundExchange throughout what say claim was not actually an audit, but a “partisan ‘royalty inspection.'”
The filing says, “Adeptus’s improper conduct was at the behest of its consulting client, SoundExchange, which has for years attempted to frustrate Sirius XM’s ability to exclude appropriate amounts from its Gross Revenues calculations as well as its right to engage in direct licensing.”
They are requesting a declaratory judgment from the court to affirm that Adeptus did not meet the independent auditor criteria set by the Copyright Royalty Board, arguing that the audit should not be considered valid. SiriusXM is also seeking damages for its counterclaims along with coverage for legal costs before and after the judgement.
No specific monetary value for the counterclaims was included in SiriusXM’s filing.
The NAB needs to audit sound exchange!!
No one knows who owns them!
No one knows how much money they collect!
No one knows how much money gets paid to the song writters, and they operate in almost secrecy!!
Many times they claim ownership of songs that aren’t even affiliated to them!!
They buy the stations, and they don’t pay the song writters!!!
Sound exchange and other evil collecting royalty agencies, they are BIG TIME THIEVES with no regulation and no oversight where the people who manage those organizations, they are millionaires who are getting richer thanks to the ignorance of the NAB and the music industry!!
They smell like another government concession to a bunch of corrupt politicians!!!
AUDUT SOUND EXCHANGE!! BAN SOUND EXCHANGE;;;