The music publishers and Elon Musk’s X Corp have ended the legal war they have waged over music licensing since 2023.
The two sides filed joint stipulations of dismissal in two US federal courts on Thursday (July 16).
The publishers’ copyright infringement suit against X was dismissed in the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
X’s antitrust suit against the publishers and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) was dismissed the same day in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Both cases were dismissed with prejudice under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), with each side bearing its own costs, expenses and attorneys’ fees.
A dismissal with prejudice is final, which means the publishers cannot refile their copyright claims and X cannot refile its antitrust claims.
The two stipulations do not disclose the terms of any settlement, or whether X has agreed to license music from the publishers.
The copyright lawsuit was filed in June 2023 by 17 music publishers, coordinated by the NMPA, when the platform was still called Twitter.
The publishers, among them Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Warner Chappell Music, sought more than $250 million in damages over the alleged infringement of roughly 1,700 works.
“Twitter fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating Publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law,” the publishers’ 2023 complaint stated.
David Israelite, President and CEO of the NMPA, said at the time that “Twitter stands alone as the largest social media platform that has completely refused to license the millions of songs on its service.”
In March 2024, Judge Aleta A. Trauger dismissed the bulk of the claims, throwing out the allegations of direct and vicarious infringement.
The judge allowed the publishers to press part of their contributory infringement claim, including an allegation that X gave more lenient treatment to paying “verified” users who posted infringing content.
The two sides held settlement talks during a stay of the case in 2025, but did not reach a deal.
The dispute escalated in January, when X filed its antitrust lawsuit against the NMPA and 18 music publishers in Texas.
X accused the publishers of colluding, through the NMPA, to force it into industrywide licenses at “supracompetitive rates,” partly by sending it close to 500,000 copyright takedown notices.
X had sought the right to negotiate licenses with individual publishers, along with damages.
Israelite called that lawsuit “meritless” and “a bad faith effort to distract from publishers’ and songwriters’ legitimate right to enforce against X’s illegal use of their songs.”
The publishers’ one remaining claim was then undercut by the US Supreme Court in March.
The court sided unanimously with Cox Communications in a separate music piracy case, finding that an internet service provider is not liable for its users’ infringement unless it induced that infringement or offered a service designed for piracy.
That standard bore on the contributory infringement theory that was, after Judge Trauger’s 2024 ruling, the only part of the publishers’ case still alive against X.
X argued that the Cox decision required the copyright case to be dismissed.
Rivals including Meta, YouTube and TikTok license music from publishers for use on their platforms, while X has not.
Neither of the July 16 filings states how X and the publishers resolved their differences, or whether a licensing agreement is now in place.
MBW has reached out to the NMPA for comment.
- Music Business Worldwide