Despite a previous licensing deal with the company, EMI is joining the other 3 major label groups in suing Grooveshark. In October 2009, Grooveshark had signed a deal with EMI Records and Publishing that both ended a previous lawsuit and licensed content to the music streaming service. Since then, according to the new filing, Grooveshark parent company Escape has “made not a single royalty payment to EMI, nor provided a single accounting statement.”
Filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, EMI is seeking unspecified damages. But in correspondence included in the filing, EMI asks Grooveshark to pay at least $150,000 in royalties, according to the New York Times.
“This is a contract dispute that we expect to resolve,” Grooveshark said in a statement.
The EMI lawsuit remains seperate from a federal copyright infringement case filed late last year against by Universal and later joined by Sony Music and the Warner Music Group.
