GMR Saddles Music Choice with $14M Copyright Lawsuit

Photo Credit: Bruce Springsteen by Raph_PH / CC by 2.0

Global Music Rights is suing Music Choice over “willful copyright infringement” for continuing to play its catalog after its licensing expired.

U.S.-based performance rights organization Global Music Rights (GMR) has filed a lawsuit against Music Choice for “repeatedly and willfully infringing upon nearly 100 GMR-licensed songs.” The infringement allegedly began after Music Choice’s licensing deal with GMR expired on December 31, 2025.

The complaint, filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, says that Music Choice was a licensee for years “until it let its license expire and claimed it would stop using GMR’s catalog.” But it didn’t stop and didn’t renew the license. Now, GMR is seeking a permanent injunction alongside maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work—roughly $14.25 million in total.

“We only turn to litigation as a last resort,” said Emio Zizza, GMR’s General Counsel. “But it’s well-established law that our clients’ copyrighted works can’t be publicly performed without a license. The many, many services that have entered into a GMR license and are paying their fees deserve the benefit of that license. Services that don’t want to pay for a GMR license don’t get to use our catalog and deprive our clients of their due.”

According to GMR, it made “multiple good-faith licensee renewal offers, but Music Choice rejected them all. Even after receiving formal notice of its unauthorized status and infringement notices from GMR’s outside counsel, […] Music Choice kept performing GMR songs without authorization. GMR filed suit this week to protect the rights of its songwriters and composers.”

Founded in 2013 by Irving Azoff, Global Music Rights represents just over 175 songwriters and their publishers, including Billie Eilish and Finneas, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Jimmy Buffett, John Mayer, Smokey Robinson, Drake, John Lennon, The Who, Pharrell Williams, Bruno Mars, and the Eagles. GMR is one of four performance rights organizations operating in the United States, alongside ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

Music Choice has been hit with litigation over royalties before. SoundExchange sued the company in 2019 with allegations that it had underpaid royalties for its use of sound recordings.