IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Meta tried to pressure music publishing company into accepting unfair licensing terms, lawsuit alleges, (Jan 29, 2026)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

The social media giant also allegedly continued to exploit the publisher’s works after its license expired.

Meta attempted to pressure a music publisher into accepting unfair licensing terms and then “brazenly disregarded copyright law and committed willful and ongoing copyright infringement,” a new federal lawsuit contends. The lawsuit, which takes aim at the company behind the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms, also claims that the social media giant orchestrated a campaign to defame the music publisher by falsely claiming that the publisher had pulled its own clients’ work from the three social media platforms (Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 2:26-cv-00752 (C.D. Cal. filed Jan. 23, 2026)).

.The lawsuit was brought by Wixen Music Publishing, a company that administers the music publishing rights of over 2,000 songwriters and recording artists from a wide range of musical genres. Since 2018, the complaint asserts, Wixen has licensed its catalog to Meta (through its predecessor Facebook) that governs the use of Wixen’s catalog on Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Meta, in turn, has incorporated this music catalog as part of a broader licensed music library available to its end users. For example, Facebook and Instagram users can select works from the music library to accompany short video clips, called “Reels,” that they can then post and share with other users. WhatsApp users, meanwhile, can select music from the music library to accompany photo or video status updates.

The relationship between Wixen and Facebook began to break down in 2025, the complaint asserts—right as the 2018 agreement was coming up for renewal. Meta sought to cut the license rates, Wixen contends, to “a small fraction of what Wixen and, therefore, Wixen’s clients, had received over the past seven years under the Wixen-Meta License.” Meta’s reason for slashing payments to songwriters, Wixen contends, was “to replace human-generated, royalty-bearing music with royalty-free AI-generated music.” Indeed, Wixen notes, Meta is building its new artificial intelligence tool, called AudioCraft, which generates music from text prompts and, in the words of the complaint, “directly threatens the future and livelihood of musical artists.

The complaint alleges that things got worse when Wixen refused to agree to Meta’s terms. At that point, rather than engaging in good-faith negotiations to renew the license, the complaint asserts, Meta allegedly engaged in “unscrupulous and ultimately illegal tactics to try, unsuccessfully, to strong-arm Wixen into accepting a drastically lower license fee.” In late 2025, the complaint asserts, while the 2018 agreement was still in effect, Meta began removing the music of certain Wixen clients from its platforms and then told those clients that it was Wixen’s fault because it had not renewed the licensing agreement. Meta also “falsely told these clients and their representatives,” the complaint alleges, that Wixen was muting and blocking the clients’ music on Meta’s platform. These false statements, the complaint asserts, allegedly caused Wixen clients to leave Wixen and “painted a false and damaging picture of Wixen to a broad swath of clients and potential clients.”

The complaint also claims that Meta’s alleged misconduct continued after the licensing agreement expired in December 2025. Despite the termination of the license, the complaint alleges, Meta continued to make the work of many Wixen clients available on its apps, including by cataloging them, promoting them via Meta-curated playlists, and making them available through its music library, “all without authorization or payment.” On information and belief, the complaint alleges, “thousands of reels” created after the agreement expired incorporate those works without authorization or compensation.

The lawsuit brings claims of direct and secondary copyright infringement, defamation, trade libel, and intentional interference with contractual relations.

The Case is No. 2:26-cv-00752.

Attorneys: Daniel Jochen Schacht (Donahue Fitzgerald LLP) for Wixen Music Publishing, Inc.

Companies: Wixen Music Publishing, Inc.; Meta Platforms, Inc.

News: Copyright TechnologyInternet CaliforniaNews