{"id":10530,"date":"2026-05-01T10:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/users-cant-sue-over-discovery-mode-payola-claim\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T10:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:55:51","slug":"users-cant-sue-over-discovery-mode-payola-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/users-cant-sue-over-discovery-mode-payola-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Users Can’t Sue Over Discovery Mode ‘Payola’ Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tA Spotify user who sued the company over accusations that Discovery Mode is a \u201cmodern form of payola\u201d cannot pursue those claims in federal court, a judge says.<\/p>\n

\n\tGenevieve Capolongo filed a widely-publicized class action last fall, claiming in her lawsuit that Spotify\u2019s recommendation tools are a \u201cdeceptive pay-for-play\u201d program that allows labels and artists to secretly pay to promote their music.<\/p>\n

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\n\tBut in a new ruling, a federal judge says there\u2019s just one problem: All Spotify users waive any right to sue the company when they sign up for the service. Under the streamer\u2019s terms of service, all disputes must instead be handled via private arbitration.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe plaintiff argues that the arbitration agreement is unenforceable for several reasons,\u201d Judge John G. Koeltl writes in a ruling obtained and first reported by Billboard<\/em>. \u201cNone is persuasive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her November complaint, Capolongo argued that she and other Spotify users believed that the company\u2019s suggestions were based on real listening tastes, when in reality the company had chosen to \u201csecretly sell those recommendations to the highest bidder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDiscovery Mode, first unveiled in 2020<\/a>, allows artists and labels to get boosted on Spotify in return for accepting reduced royalties. It was initially met with scrutiny, including a Congressional investigation, over its similarities to payola \u2014 the infamous historical practice of secretly paying radio stations for airplay. But it has since become a popular and widely accepted industry marketing tool around the release of new music.<\/p>\n

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\n\tSeeking to represent \u201cmillions\u201d of other users, Capolongo argued that Discovery Mode violated the law because Spotify had failed to properly disclose it: \u00a0\u201cWithout that specificity, users cannot distinguish between genuine personalization and covert advertising.\u201d She also took aim at Spotify\u2019s editorial playlists, like the hugely influential Today\u2019s Top Hits and RapCaviar \u2014 arguing they, too, were secretly subject to pay-for-play.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the time, Spotify called the accusations \u201cnonsense,\u201d claiming the lawsuit was \u201criddled with misunderstandings and inaccuracies\u201d about Discovery Mode: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t buy plays, it doesn\u2019t affect editorial playlists, and it\u2019s clearly disclosed in the app and on our website,\u201d the company said in its response.<\/p>\n

\n\tCapolongo\u2019s case was one of several filed last year to claim that major labels are buying placement on Spotify to boost their artists. The high-profile lawsuit filed by Drake over Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cNot Like Us\u201d included accusations that Universal Music Group used bots and payments to juice the song\u2019s popularity. Another case, filed by a rapper named RBX, claimed Spotify allowed \u201cbillions of fraudulent streams\u201d that boosted the performance numbers of major stars.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Thursday\u2019s ruling, Judge Koeltl said Capolongo\u2019s allegations simply could not be filed as a federal class action, thanks to the user agreement that she herself had signed.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpotify had provided her with \u201ca conspicuous hyperlink\u201d to its terms of service containing the arbitration agreement, the judge said. When those terms were later updated, he added, Capolongo \u201cmanifested her assent\u201d to them by continuing to use and pay for the service. Her lawyers argued that the agreement was invalid for a variety of reasons, but the judge rejected that argument too.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpotify is hardly alone in forcing fans to sign arbitration agreements, which are widely seen as a more business-friendly and cheaper alternative to litigation. Almost all modern services include such language in their terms of service, including StubHub \u2014 which recently won a similar ruling to escape a class action filed by angry Taylor Swift fans \u2014 and Live Nation, which is embroiled in a long-running lawsuit over its use of arbitration clauses.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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A Spotify user who sued the company over accusations that Discovery Mode is a \u201cmodern form of payola\u201d cannot pursue those claims in federal court, a judge says. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[786,2569,6990,6992,440,5028],"class_list":["post-10530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-claim","tag-discovery","tag-mode","tag-payola","tag-sue","tag-users"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}