A group of major music publishers, including Universal Music Group and Sony Music, has agreed to end its long-running copyright infringement dispute with Elon Musk’s X platform. Court filings made public Friday confirm that both sides have jointly requested the dismissal of their respective lawsuits in federal courts in Tennessee and Texas.
The dismissals are being sought “with prejudice,” meaning the claims cannot be refiled in the future. The original lawsuit, filed in June 2023 by the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and a coalition of publishers, accused X (then Twitter) of “rampant” and “massive” copyright infringement involving around 1,700 musical works.
Settlement talks in 2025 had shown progress but ultimately collapsed.
Neither X, the NMPA, nor the individual publishers have commented publicly on the resolution or disclosed any financial terms or licensing agreements that may have been reached as part of the settlement.
The development ends a multi-year legal battle that highlighted ongoing tensions between social media platforms and the music industry over unlicensed use of copyrighted songs. X has been the only major social media platform without comprehensive music licensing deals.
Details of any future licensing arrangements between X and the publishers remain undisclosed.