Entertainment
Judge Slashes Napster Class Action Settlement That Paid Songwriters 30x Less Than Lawyers
Two years after an appeals court overturned a “measly” class action settlement for songwriters that netted their lawyers a huge payout, a judge has now awarded those attorneys just a tiny fraction of their original fee.
The scathing 2023 ruling rejected a deal struck with Napster that secured just $53,000 for songwriters but paid their lawyers a whopping $1.7 million. The appeals court said it was very clearly “unreasonable” to pay attorneys more than 30 times the amount they actually won for their clients.
On Wednesday, a lower court judge heeded that warning and sharply reduced the amount paid to those lawyers under the settlement — all the way down to $86,022.
“The difference between the settlement value … and the [legal fees] figure … is staggering,” Judge Jeffrey S. White wrote in the ruling, obtained by Billboard. “The court therefore finds it appropriate to substantially reduce the [legal fees] figure.”
The ruling came in a class action filed in 2016 against Rhapsody, which has since rebranded as Napster. It was one of several such copyright cases filed in the mid-2010s over the failure of streaming services like Spotify to properly pay mechanical royalties to songwriters.
But the lawsuit — and its prospects for a large payout — were sharply reduced by a competing class action organized by the National Music Publishers’ Association, which eventually drained roughly 98% of the possible class members. The passage of the Music Modernization Act, which largely fixed the problems that led to the litigation, further reduced the scope of the case.
When Napster finally settled in 2019, it agreed to pay as much as $20 million. But because NMPA’s competing lawsuit had decimated the earlier case, Napster ended up paying only $52,841 to the actual songwriters who chose to participate.
When it came time to figure out how much to pay the lawyers who represented the songwriters, their fees were calculated as a percentage of that hypothetical $20 million cap, not the actual payout — resulting in the outsized $1.7 million award.
That outcome shocked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled in 2023 that the “meager” payout to songwriters didn’t come close to warranting the massive reward to their attorneys: “This case will likely make the average person shake her head in disbelief,” U.S. Circuit Judge Kenneth K. Lee wrote at the time.
Back at the trial court, the plaintiff’s lawyers (from the law firm Michelman & Robinson LLP) once again asked for a big award, offering a revised request of $1.2 million. Even if the direct monetary payout was small, they argued their lawsuit had provided “significant benefits” to songwriters, including aiding the larger NMPA case and even helping the passage of the MMA.
But in Wednesday’s decision, Judge White said he was required to award the lawyers no more than 25 percent of the total benefit they had won for their clients. Under a revised calculation, the judge put that figure at $358,903 — meaning he would award just $86,022 to the attorneys. That figure will be supplemented by an award of legal “costs” (separate from attorney’s fees) of just over $13,000.
One silver lining for the plaintiffs’ attorneys? The judge also rejected arguments from Napster’s attorney, who had urged him to award the attorneys no more than 25 percent of the original $52,841 — meaning just $13,210 in legal fees.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys at issue in the ruling did not immediately return a request for comment.
Entertainment
Raj Kapoor, Veteran Producer of Grammy & Oscar Telecasts, to Coproduce 2026 Tony Awards
Raj Kapoor, whose credits include the nine most recent Academy Awards and the 12 most recent Grammy Awards, is set to produce the Tony Awards for the first time, in tandem with Sarah Levine Hall and Jack Sussman. Kapoor and Levine Hall will serve as co-showrunners. Kapoor is joining the Tony team for the first time, while Levine Hall and Sussman have a long history with Broadway’s Biggest Night.
Kapoor served as both showrunner and executive producer for the 68th Grammy Awards on Feb. 1 and is serving in those same capacities for the 98th Academy Awards on March 15 and the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards on May 17.
Kapoor’s resume includes several other awards shows, including the Emmys, iHeart Radio Music Awards, Latin Grammys, People’s Choice Awards and Radio Disney Music Awards.
The Tony Awards will return to Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 7. The three-hour show will broadcast live to both coasts on CBS and will stream on Paramount+ (8-11 p.m. ET/5-8 p.m. PT).
“As former theater kids, stepping into the role of executive producers for the 79th Tony Awards is a tremendous honor,” Kapoor, Levine Hall and Sussman said in a joint statement. “There’s nothing quite like capturing the magic of live theater on a global stage. Our team is committed to bringing audiences closer to the creativity, innovation and heart that define Broadway.”
Kapoor and Levine Hall are both Primetime Emmy winners. They both won for their work on The 96th Oscars: Kapoor as executive producer and Levine Hall as producer, which was voted outstanding variety special (live) in 2024. Sussman also won as executive producer of Adele: One Night Only, which was voted outstanding variety special (pre-recorded) in 2022.
Levine Hall’s notable credits include the past three Academy Awards, 19 Tony Awards, six Kennedy Center Honors, the Emmy Awards and Disney Legends Awards.
Sussman is an independent executive producer with a history of live events for television, music specials, award show productions as well as alternative and reality television series. Sussman was evp of specials, music and live events at CBS Entertainment for more than two decades serving as the network’s chief liaison to the music industry. Sussman oversaw the network’s events and specials, such as the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards and the Kennedy Center Honors, as well as CBS’ presentations of the CMA Awards and The Academy of Country Music Awards. In 2022, while at CBS, Sussman received a Primetime Emmy nod as executive producer of One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, which was nominated for outstanding variety special (pre-recorded).
The Tony Awards eligibility cutoff date for the 2025-26 season is Sunday, April 26, for all Broadway productions that meet all other eligibility requirements. Nominations for the 2026 Tony Awards will be announced on Tuesday, May 5.
The Tony Awards are produced in collaboration with Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League.
NFL player Keion White was shot early Monday (Feb. 9) following an alleged argument with Lil Baby at a San Francisco nightclub.
According to ABC7, White was shot in the ankle at Dahlia’s, where the 49ers defensive lineman was hosting a Super Bowl party.
SFPD responded to calls for gunshots around 4 a.m. PT on Monday, according to ABC7. The San Francisco Standard viewed the police report, which, according to the publication, said a witness told law enforcement that White got into an argument with Baby as the rapper and his entourage tried to enter the private event, and was then shot, hours after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX.
Billboard has reached out to reps for Lil Baby and the SFPD for comment.
“Any violent incident in our city is unacceptable, and I’m hoping Keion recovers quickly. I’ve spoken with SFPD and 49ers leadership — we are all grateful to our SFPD officers for their quick response,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said on X. “As always, I will continue working with San Francisco law enforcement to ensure our neighborhoods and our residents are safe.”
According to the San Francisco 49ers, White underwent successful surgery on his ankle and the injuries are not expected to be “career-threatening.”
“A preliminary investigation revealed a verbal altercation occurred between two groups inside a business,” San Francisco police said in a statement, per ESPN. “The victim was injured when shots were fired by an unknown suspect.”
No arrests have been made yet, and no suspects have been named by the San Francisco Police Department.
Lil Baby was spotted attending Super Bowl LX with his son, Jason. On the music side, Baby has already notched collabs with Tkandz as well as Veeze and Rylo Rodriguez in 2026. The Atlanta rapper’s “Mrs. Trendsetter” held at No. 89 on last week’s Billboard Hot 100.
Don Toliver’s busy week across Billboard’s charts includes the rapper-singer’s first No. 1 hit on the Hot Rap Songs list, as “Body” debuts atop the ranking dated Feb. 7. The new champ, on Donnway & Co./Cactus Jack/Atlantic Records, captains his collection of 17 tracks this week’s chart. They’re all from his new album, Octane, which storms in at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart with 162,000 equivalent album units.
The 17-track parade marks the most cuts that Don Toliver has posted on the Hot Rap Songs chart in a single week, and makes him only the sixth artist to claim 17 or more simultaneous appearances. He joins Drake, who has done it twice, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Baby, Playboi Carti and Travis Scott in the chart’s 34-year history.
“Body” owes its coronation on the multimetric Hot Rap Songs chart, a weighted combination of streaming, radio airplay and sales data in the United States, almost entirely to 14.3 million official on-demand streams for the week of Jan. 30-Feb. 5, according to Luminate. Thanks to that sum, it sparks a No. 1 debut on the Rap Streaming Songs chart. In the remaining categories, “Body” had 106,000 radio audience impressions and a negligible amount of song downloads.
With “Body,” Don Toliver achieves his first Hot Rap Songs No. 1 after 30 prior appearances. The performer previously peaked twice at No. 3 through featured roles: He and NAV guested on Internet Money and Gunna’s “Lemonade,” which reached the bronze in November 2020, while his and Future’s supporting turns on Metro Boomin’s “Too Many Nights” led to the same prize in December 2022. As a lead artist, his own “Tiramisu” set his previous career high of No. 6 in September 2025.
Similarly, “Body” leads Don Toliver’s ledger on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (No. 3) and the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 (No. 14).
With “Body” on top, here’s a recap of all 17 Don Toliver tracks on Hot Rap Songs. Among them, 15 are debuts, while “ATM” and “Tiramisu” nab their second and third weeks, respectively.
- No. 1, “Body”
- No. 2, “E85”
- No. 4, “ATM”
- No. 5, “Secondhand,” feat. Rema
- No. 6, “Rendezvous,” feat. Yeat
- No. 8, “Tiramisu”
- No. 9, “Rosary,” feat. Travis Scott
- No. 10, “Call Back”
- No. 11, “Gemstone”
- No. 12, “Excavator”
- No. 13, “Opposite”
- No. 17, “All the Signs,” feat. Teezo Touchdown
- No. 18, “Tuition”
- No. 19, “K9,” feat. SahBabii
- No. 22, “TMU”
- No. 24, “Sweet Home”
- No. 25, “Pleasure’s Mine”
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