Spotify to pay back $21 million in unpaid royalties

Now if it can safely land The Life of Pablo...

Yeah, that's Spotify alright. (Thomas Trutschel/Getty)

Spotify has struck an agreement with the National Music Publishers Association over unpaid royalties.

The music streaming service will pay $21 million to publishers and songwriters with $16 million set for royalties and $5 million set aside in bonus funds for those who opt in the deal, The Verge reports.

“We must continue to push digital services to properly pay for the musical works that fuel their businesses and, after much work together, we have found a way for Spotify to quickly get royalties to the right people,” NMPA President David Israelite said in a statement.

Spotify has faced a number of lawsuits stemming from unpaid royalties, the latest suit was seeking $150 million in damages.

“As we have said many times, we have always been committed to paying songwriters and publishers every penny,” Spotify’s head of communications Jonathan Prince said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard work of everyone at the NMPA to secure this agreement, and we look forward to further collaboration with them as we build a comprehensive publishing administration system.”