A New Lawsuit Accuses Spotify of Cheating Songwriters Out of Royalties

Spotify Technology SA used a legalistic word change to justify slicing royalties to musicians and publishers, reducing the revenue on which royalties are based by almost 50%, according to lawsuit filed by the group that collects their payments.

The change came in March when Spotify added the word “bundled” to its description of its $10.99-a-month music streaming service, the Mechanical Licensing Collective said in its complaint. Nothing else “about the Premium service has actually changed,”...