SoundCloud Sued Over Unpaid Royalties

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It sure seems like this lawsuit could have been easily avoided. :(

In an email sent to members, PRS for Music notes: "Following five years of unsuccessful negotiations, we now find ourselves in a situation where we have no alternative but to commence legal proceedings." It believes that SoundCloud should acquire a license to offer music created by its 111,000 members and says that while it has asked the company "numerous times to recognise their responsibilities," its demands "have not been met."
 
Here is the more important paragraph from the article



Soundcloud is not a record music company. They are not even a Spotify. They are a YouTube for audio content. Artists upload content, NOT Soundcloud. To reason that Soundcloud somehow owes "artists the royalties they deserve" when it was the artists themselves that put the content there is preposterous. What does the Terms of Service for Soundcloud say? Does it say "Thanks for putting your stuff here, we owe you big time!"? No I doubt it.

Heres some background on PRS For Music from Wikipedia....should give you some idea of who they are.

In 2007, PRS for Music took a Scottish car servicing company to court because the employees were allegedly "listening to the radio at work, allowing the music to be 'heard by colleagues and customers.'" In June 2008, PRS for Music accused eleven police stations of failure to obtain permits to play music, and sought an injunction and payments for damages.
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In 2008, PRS for Music began a concerted drive to make commercial premises pay for annual "performance" licences. In one case it told a 61-year-old mechanic that he would have to pay £150 to play his radio while he worked by himself. It also targeted a bakery that played a radio in a private room at the back of the shop. A woman who used a classical radio to calm her horses and community centres that allowed children to sing carols in public. However, questions have been raised about the tactic of targeting small businesses
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Wiltshire Constabulary refused to pay PRS for a £32,000 licence fee in April 2009. Instead the force told all officer and civilian staff that music could no longer be played in their workplaces but that ban excluded patrol cars. A total of 38 of 49 UK police forces currently hold PRS licences.
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In October 2009, the PRS apologized to a 56-year-old shelf-stacker at a village in Clackmannanshire for pursuing her for singing to herself while stacking shelves. PRS initially told her that she would be prosecuted and fined thousands of pounds if she continued to sing without a "live performance" license. However PRS subsequently acknowledged its mistake.
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Sounds like goons to me.
 
As a musician that uses SoundCloud myself, I don't understand why SoundCloud owes me anything. I put my tracks up there willingly because they offer a free service to get my music out. Anybody else that would give me royalties would also charge me initially.
 
Companies should have the ability to easily counter-sue these licensing leeches..
 
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