Streaming Music Services Win Redo of Royalty Rate Rule (1)

Streaming music providers Amazon Digital Services LLC, Google LLC, Pandora Media LLC, and Spotify USA Inc. won their challenge to “significantly increased” royalty rates they were ordered to pay to copyright owners by the Copyright Royalty Board, a D.C. federal appeals court said in a ruling unsealed Tuesday.

The Board didn’t give the streaming services proper notice that it would adopt the higher rate, rejected the services’ proposed benchmarks without a proper explanation, and wrongly redefined an important term late in the proceeding, the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia said. The court partially vacated ...