Federal court filings show X Corp and leading music publishers have agreed to end their legal battle over music use on the X platform. The dispute involved copyright claims and antitrust allegations.
Content creators and publishers using the X platform will see immediate changes after X Corp and major music publishers, including Universal Music Group and Sony Music, agreed to end their legal fight over music licensing. The resolution, disclosed in federal court filings, closes a high-profile dispute that had raised questions about copyright enforcement and platform liability for user-generated content.
According to court documents, both sides asked a Tennessee federal court to dismiss the publishers' lawsuit, which accused X of allowing users to post songs without proper licenses, allegedly infringing on hundreds of copyrights. The publishers had sought over $250 million in damages for nearly 1,700 works. At the same time, X Corp and the music labels requested a Texas federal court to dismiss X's countersuit, which alleged the publishers conspired to block competition and forced inflated licensing rates.
The legal filings specified that all claims should be dismissed with prejudice, preventing them from being refiled. Representatives for X Corp, the music publishers, and the National Music Publishers Association did not immediately provide further details or confirm whether a broader settlement had been reached.
The original lawsuit, filed in Nashville in 2023 by 17 music publishers, claimed X routinely ignored copyright violations, contrasting its practices with platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, which the publishers said properly license music. In 2024, a U.S. District Judge dismissed most of the publishers' claims against X, ruling the platform could not be held liable for direct or vicarious infringement, but allowed a contributory infringement claim to proceed. X's countersuit in Texas, filed in January, accused the publishers of violating federal antitrust law by refusing to negotiate individual licensing deals. The publishers later asked for that case to be dismissed as well.
For more details, see the original reporting by Blake Brittain for inma: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/musks-x-major-labels-end-dispute-over-music-social-media-platform-2026-07-17/
