Suddenly Spotify Is No Longer Funny

Spotify Technology has removed the work of hundreds of comedians, including John Mulaney, Jim Gaffigan and Kevin Hart, amid a new fight over royalty payments, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Tiffany Haddish, Mike Birbiglia and a host of other popular acts have joined a group of entertainers trying to get paid a royalty on a copyright for jokes they wrote when they are played on radio and digital service providers like Spotify, SiriusXM, Pandora and YouTube.

The comedians’ effort is largely led by Spoken Giants. The global rights administration company, founded in 2019, wants to collect royalties for underlying composition copyrights of spoken-word media—essentially, the comedians’ words—similar to how songwriters are paid for use of their music and lyrics.

Spotify took the content down after reaching an impasse with Spoken Giants.

Currently, comics are paid as performers through their label or distributor and digital performance rights organization SoundExchange when their recordings are played on a digital service. They aren’t directly compensated as writers of that work—for what Spoken Giants is calling their literary rights.

The complaints from comedians come as songwriters and artists are seeking ways to control their work and get more money out of streaming services and radio.

Spoken Giants is run by Jim King, a former executive at music performance rights organization BMI, along with Ryan Bitzer and Damion Greiman, co-founders of comedy label 800 Pound Gorilla Records. The company has started by representing writers of comedy bits and jokes, with plans to expand across podcasts, speeches and lectures.

The organization began reaching out to streaming services and satellite and terrestrial radio in the spring. Other services and radio companies have been talking with Spoken Giants. After some negotiations with Spotify, Spoken Giants said it received an email on the eve of Thanksgiving saying it would remove works represented by the organization until an agreement could be reached.

The dispute highlights a shifting media landscape disrupted by streaming. BMI and ASCAP were founded at the beginning of the 20th century to collect license fees on behalf of composers and songwriters as radio took off. Historically, comedy had very few listeners in comparison. That has changed, Mr. King said, with comedy albums available on streaming platforms and SiriusXM and others having entire stations dedicated to comedy.