Confusion around licensing requirements on spotify

[WilliamAshley]

My Question or Issue

So I have the ability to post music to spotify but there I have some confusion understanding spotify's practices regarding use of materials distributed through spotify.

Specifically I am curious on spotify's terms where sample or sound licensing has occured as part of the composition of music, such as samples that are royalty free licenses with rights to make and distribute music with the samples but there the samples are a limited license which restricted sublicensing of the samples.

I have heard that spotify wants to let people make remixes of the music people put onto spotify but as far as I am aware that would violate copyright protections of any material that is remixed containing those samples or other sound tools. 

I am finding it hard to understand how automatic reassignment of derivative rights is even possible in this scenario.

I havn't seen anything indicating that spotify prohibits distributing content that is make with a limited licensed restricting sublicensing  so I am curious how this is all working on the spotify side of things? Does spotify actually let people remix and share works that havn't been cleared with the person who made the song, and any other parties that have an interest in the subcomponents of a composition.

The reason why this is an issue is that there are many sample and audio providers that prohibit sublicensing as the licenses are often provided as personal licenses allowing the license holder to make and distribute music with those samples.  The licenses commonly prohibit sublicensing.

Since sharing on spotify is done via a third party I'm not entirely sure of spotify's position on this. What I have seen is that distributing on some places may require exclusive rights to share the music - in case of licensing that allows for sharing of the music made with the samples this doesn't appear as a problem but where the streaming service allows that material to be reused by a third party I start to have doubts if that would even be legal. 

Any feedback on this is sought.

[Joan]

Hi there @WilliamAshley,

Thanks for reaching out. 

We appreciate the curiosity and the courtesy of asking these things upfront. However, we here in the Community are more focused on helping with account and app related issues, as well as user feedback. For any questions regarding music you have uploaded or want to upload to Spotify, especially when it comes to legal questions like these, it’s best to contact our Artist Support team, they can assist you further.

Hope this clears things up.