Musk's X, major labels end dispute over music on social-media platform

Blake Brittain

Fri, July 17, 2026 astatine 9:14 AM CDT 2 min read

By Blake Brittain

July 17 (Reuters) - A radical of large euphony publishers including Universal Music Group and Sony Music person agreed to extremity ‌a ineligible quality with Elon Musk's X Corp implicit the usage ‌of their euphony connected the X social-media platform, according to national tribunal filings.

X Corp and the ​music labels asked a Tennessee national tribunal connected Thursday to disregard the labels' suit that accused X of infringing hundreds of their copyrights by allowing its users to station their songs without a license. They besides asked a Texas national ‌court to disregard a countersuit ⁠X had filed that accused the labels of conspiring to artifact contention and forcing the level to licence their songs ⁠at inflated rates.

Spokespeople for X Corp, the labels and their commercialized radical the National Music Publishers Association did not instantly respond to requests for remark and much ​information, including ​whether their quality was settled. The filings ​asked the courts to disregard ‌the claims with prejudice, which means they cannot beryllium refiled.

A radical of 17 euphony publishers sued X successful Nashville, Tennessee successful 2023, seeking much than $250 cardinal successful damages for the alleged infringement of astir 1,700 copyrights. The suit said that X "routinely ignores" users' copyright infringement and that different large platforms similar TikTok, ‌Facebook and YouTube decently licence euphony from ​the publishers.

X convinced the tribunal to disregard overmuch ​of the suit successful 2024. ​U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said that X could not ‌be held liable for nonstop oregon ​vicarious copyright infringement, but ​allowed portion of the labels' contributory infringement assertion to continue.

X countersued the publishers successful Texas successful January, accusing them of violating national antitrust ​law by refusing to ‌negotiate idiosyncratic licensing deals. The publishers told the tribunal successful April that ​the lawsuit should beryllium dismissed.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain successful Washington, ​Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Nick Zieminski)