Content from Kevin Hart, John Mulaney, and hundreds of other comedians has been removed from Spotify over a dispute regarding royalty payments. A large group of comedians is hoping to earn royalty payments when their content is played on streaming services similar to the way musicians earn money for the usage of their music.
Spoken Giants, the organization representing the comedians, released a statement explaining their position on their website: “Compared to music and other media, Spoken Word assets are under-represented in today’s sonic landscape and more importantly key rights, provided for under copyright law, are not paid by the very channels that obtain great value from using comedy works, podcasts, and other spoken-word assets.”
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Among the comedians represented by Spoken Giants are Gabriel Iglesias, Patton Oswalt, Paula Poundstone, Roy Wood Jr., and more.
In response, a Spotify spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly that the company “has paid significant amounts of money for the content in question, and would love to continue to do so.”
They continued: “It’s imperative that the labels that distribute this content, Spotify, and Spoken Giants come together to resolve this issue to ensure this content remains available to fans around the globe.”
[Via]