Merlin has announced that they will be pulling their members music from German music streaming service Simfy. Merlin is a very large independent music licensor. Simfy failed to report royalties over the summer months (due to new management), which has now been paid to Merlin. However, Merlin still isnt happy that about an ongoing equity issue.

“We have recently tried to engage the service’s new management in a discussion about the equity interest Merlin was granted in the company,” Caldas wrote in an email to Merlin member labels. These discussions culminated last week in the new CEO contacting us to make clear that he considers the Merlin relationship insignificant to Simfy’s business (although we have a market share on the service well in excess of 12%).

It also seems as though Merlin will now take legal action and try to claim their equity in Simfy through the courts.

This all seems like a terrible deal for Simfy users in Germany and this could really damage Simfy in the long term. However, it is interesting to hear that Merlin was granted equity (shares) in Simfy when they dont actually own any copyrights as such, just license copyrights from their members. Is Merlin getting equity in a company that could be worth several millions in exchange for just having their catalogue live? Im guessing Merlin members dont actually get any equity in Simfy.