Sony claims in a new lawsuit that streaming platform LiveOne and its subsidiary Slacker Radio owe $2.6 million in unpaid licensing fees yet are refusing to stop playing the label’s music, including tracks by Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Tate McRae.
The allegations come in a federal lawsuit Sony filed Friday (June 6) against LiveOne and Slacker, which LiveOne acquired in 2017 and has since folded into the LiveOne streaming app.
Sony and Slacker have been doing business with each other since 2007 through a content distribution deal, according to the lawsuit. But Sony’s lawyers say LiveOne and Slacker stopped making regular monthly licensing payments in August 2024 and now owe a total outstanding balance of $2.6 million.
“In the past several months alone, Slacker claims to have seen increasing commercial success, touting a surge in usage of the LiveOne app and a year-over-year surge in content views,” write Sony’s attorneys. “Despite this self-proclaimed growth, Slacker—true to its name—has failed to make license payments to Sony Music as and when required under the agreement, and its parent, LiveOne, has likewise failed to live up to its guarantee.”
According to the lawsuit, Sony notified LiveOne and Slacker in March that it was terminating the content distribution deal in light of this contract breach. Sony says it “expressly informed” them that further use of its music would constitute copyright infringement, according to the lawsuit.
But Sony’s lawyers claim the LiveOne app is still streaming more than 200 of the label’s songs — aso including tracks by Doja Cat, Harry Styles, Justin Timberlake and Khalid.
“Slacker’s conduct has caused and continues to cause substantial and irreparable harm to Sony Music and its artists, while enriching defendants at the expense of Sony Music and its artists,” write Sony’s lawyers. “By this lawsuit, Sony Music seeks damages for Slacker and LiveOne’s breach of the agreement and for defendants’ willful infringement of Sony Music’s copyrights since the March 15, 2025, termination of the agreement.”
Representatives for Slacker did not immediately return Billboard’s request for comment on the claims.
The lawsuit comes three years after Slacker and LiveOne faced a different lawsuit over unpaid fees from SoundExchange, the nonprofit that collects and distributes royalties to record labels and artists. A federal judge ultimately ordered the streaming companies to pay SoundExchange nearly $10 million in past-due royalties.
