Wixen Refiles Lawsuit Against Meta Over Music Licensing Dispute

Wixen Music Publishing has refiled its lawsuit against Meta after a federal judge gave the company a two‑week window to correct its pleadings.

Background of the dispute

Wixen’s songwriting clients provide the music that underpins many Instagram and Facebook Reels. From 2018 through 2025, Meta licensed that music under a seven‑year agreement. When the license term ended, Meta reduced its payments to “a small fraction” of the previous rates. Wixen refused the cut, yet Meta continued to use the songs without a new license or payment.

Meta also began removing Wixen’s songs from its platforms while the original license was still in effect, and then told songwriters and their managers that Wixen was responsible for the takedowns. That prompted Wixen to file suit.

Judge’s ruling on Meta’s motion

Meta’s first courtroom move was a motion to dismiss the case before any answers were required. Earlier this month the judge issued an order that headlines described as “tossing” the suit. In reality, the judge did not dismiss the case.

Meta’s motion never asserted that it held a license or that it was not using the songs. Instead, it contested whose name appeared on the paperwork. The judge responded by asking Wixen to specify, song by song, whether it owned each work or was an exclusive licensee, and which rights it held. This is a pleading exercise, not a dismissal.

Wixen complied, mirroring a similar filing it made in a 2020 case against Triller. That earlier case proceeded, and the judge cited it in his order here. He granted Wixen two weeks to refile, which the company did.

Claims that remain untouched

The allegations that Meta pulled songs down mid‑license and blamed Wixen for the removals were left intact. The trial date remains on the calendar, and discovery is underway. Wixen expects discovery to reveal additional instances of unlicensed use.

Legal nuance: the Ninth Circuit rule

A controversial Ninth Circuit precedent, now applied in California, requires a publishing administrator to control 100% of a song to bring a copyright infringement claim. This standard differs from other courts.

Wixen acknowledged the rule in its briefs but kept partially‑controlled songs in the case so it can challenge the rule on appeal. If a song has two co‑writers each with a different publishing administrator, the rule would allow Meta to use the song for free, and neither publisher could stop it. Most songs are co‑written, making the issue significant.

Wixen’s lawyers state the rule does not diminish the case’s merits. Meta gained a two‑week delay but not an answer to the core question: whether it can use songwriters’ work without paying.

Why the DMCA safe harbor does not apply

Meta’s motion never invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe‑harbor provisions, which were designed for message boards, not trillion‑dollar corporations. The music in Reels is not user‑uploaded; it comes from a library that Meta builds and licenses up front. For seven years Meta paid for that library.

According to Wixen, there is “no law to hide behind here,” only a corporate decision to stop paying while continuing to use the music.

Wixen’s call to action

Wixen argues that taking responsibility would be “embarrassingly modest”: simply license the music and pay the creators fairly. For a company valued at nearly $1.5 trillion, the cost is a rounding error, comparable to what bars, gyms, and TV networks already do.

Meta chose to slash music payments at a time when short‑form video usage is exploding and music drives viewership, even as it invests heavily in AI data centers that could generate synthetic music to replace human creators.

Wixen concludes that responsibility should not require litigation and urges Meta to become a partner to the songwriters and artists whose work fuels its platforms.

About Wixen Music Publishing

Jason Rys serves as CEO of Wixen Music Publishing, an independent publishing administrator founded in 1978 by Randall Wixen and based in Calabasas, California. The company represents more than 2,000 songwriters and recording artists across every genre, including The Doors, Janis Joplin, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, Rage Against the Machine, Weezer, Missy Elliott, The Black Keys and Andrew Bird. Wixen operates worldwide with a sister office in London.

The case continues to move forward, and Wixen says it will be present in court until Meta meets its obligations.