Elon Musk is suing major music publishers over X takedown notices

Elon Musk's X Corp is taking legal action against a string of major music publishers, accusing them of "colluding" to force the platform into accepting "supracompetitive rates” for licenses.

According to Music Business Worldwide, X Corp filed an antitrust lawsuit to the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Friday, January 9, against plaintiffs including the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and 18 publishers such as Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Corp, Warner Chappell Music, and BMG Rights Management.

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The filing accuses the NMPA and publishers of conducting a "coordinated campaign" to bombard X with copyright notices, claiming that the platform received 200,000 takedown requests during Musk's first year at the helm of X, and "nearly 500,000" since 2023.

X Corp argues that this "scheme" was created in order to "coerce X into taking licenses to musical works from the industry as a whole," adding that publishers' use of the NMPA instead of direct contact with X "denies the benefit of competition between music publishers”.

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In its report, Music Business Worldwide highlights that YouTube and Meta were subjected to similar takedown requests, however both organisations reached licensing agreements with the NMPA — with YouTube paying out around $8 billion to the music industry between June 2024 - 2025.

In a press statement, NMPA CEO David Isrealite pointed to X's ongoing refusal to pay for licensed music on its platform, accusing Musk's organisation of filing a "meritless lawsuit" as part of a "bad faith effort to distract from publishers’ and songwriters’ legitimate right to enforce against X’s illegal use of their songs.” 

[Via: Music Business Worldwide]

Megan Townsend is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, follow her on X