PRS Improves Royalty Data, Drake Copyright Case Dropped, and Reservoir and Elvis Estate Sue Anthropic

How The Music Business Works - Issue #85

October 29, 2026

Welcome back to How the Music Business Works.

The legal pressure on AI companies shows no sign of letting up. Reservoir Media filed suits against both Suno and Anthropic on the same day, and the Elvis Presley catalog’s owners followed with their own action against Anthropic, alleging Claude continues to reproduce protected songs even after guardrails were introduced.

The producer who sued Drake over “Janice STFU” dropped his case just 11 days after filing it, with no explanation given, though a key legal hurdle around copyright registration timing may have played a role.

PRS For Music announced a new data partnership with Soundtrack that will bring play-by-play usage information from 7,000 UK businesses into its royalty distributions starting December.

And a former Eminem sound engineer has pleaded guilty to stealing and selling unreleased music that leaked online earlier this year, facing up to five years in prison.

Here’s what you need to know.

PRS For Music Partners with Soundtrack to Improve Royalty Accuracy for Business Music Use

PRS For Music has announced a new partnership with Soundtrack, the business music streaming service, that will provide play-by-play data from around 7,000 UK premises including retail stores, hotels, bars, and public spaces. The data will allow PRS to move away from analogous estimates and toward actual usage information when calculating royalty distributions to songwriters, composers, and publishers for music played in commercial settings. Clients using Soundtrack’s platform include Ole & Steen, Uniqlo, Four Seasons Hotels, and even the UK Parliament. PRS will begin incorporating the Soundtrack data into its royalty distributions from December 2026, as part of a broader commitment from new CEO Ben McOwen Wilson to improve both the accuracy and speed of payments to members.

Producer Drops “Janice STFU” Lawsuit Against Drake After 11 Days

Aviel Calev Hirschfield has withdrawn his copyright infringement lawsuit against Drake just 11 days after filing it, with no reason given for the dismissal. The notice filed in Los Angeles federal court dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning the claims could be refiled at a later date. Hirschfield had alleged that the chorus of Drake’s chart-topping “Janice STFU” was copied word-for-word from a demo he sent to producers in Drake’s circle in January 2026, with Drake’s team calling the suit a “manufactured and baseless attempt” to exploit the rapper’s name. One notable legal hurdle the case faced was that Hirschfield’s demo was not registered with the Copyright Office until July 21, more than two months after the song’s release, which would have limited his available remedies under US copyright law. No settlement has been announced, and no court ruled on the merits of the claim.

Reservoir Media Sues Suno and Anthropic for Copyright Infringement

Reservoir Media has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against both Suno and Anthropic on the same day, making it the latest music rightsholder to take AI companies to court. The Suno suit covers 1,050 compositions Reservoir owns or controls in the US, and argues that Suno’s licensing deals with Warner Music, BMG, and Believe prove a functioning market for AI training licenses already exists, undermining any fair use defense. The Anthropic suit focuses on 853 compositions whose lyrics Reservoir believes were used to train Claude, with the chatbot also alleged to generate copies and derivative works from those lyrics in its outputs. Both cases are being handled by Richard Busch of Adams & Reese, the attorney behind the Blurred Lines case and Salt-N-Pepa’s termination rights battle against UMG.

Former Eminem Employee Pleads Guilty to Stealing and Selling Unreleased Music

Joseph Strange, a former sound engineer who worked with Eminem from 2007 to 2021, has pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement after stealing and selling unreleased music that subsequently leaked online in January 2025. Strange, who had access to recordings at a Ferndale, Michigan studio, sold the material to multiple buyers, including one individual who paid $50,000 and claimed Strange had over 300 songs and handwritten lyric sheets in his possession. More than 25 tracks ended up on the web and were accessed over eight million times by November 2025, with the stolen files valued at a minimum of $750,000. Strange was originally charged in March 2025 with both copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods. His attorney described the case as “far more complicated and nuanced” than the Department of Justice’s characterization suggested, and noted that Strange has expressed remorse. Strange faces a maximum of five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 27, 2027. The case was brought following cooperation from Mathers Music Studio and an FBI investigation that included searches of Strange’s residence and seizure of hard drives containing the unreleased recordings.

Elvis Presley Catalog Owners Sue Anthropic Over AI Training

Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to Elvis Presley’s catalog, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging the company used 274 of Presley’s songs, including “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Don’t Be Cruel,” to train its Claude AI models without permission. The suit seeks $150,000 per infringed work and alleges that Claude continues to reproduce copyrighted material even after guardrails were introduced, citing an instance where the model acknowledged its outputs were “edging past ‘inspired by’ into reproducing the copyrighted song.” The lawsuit is the latest in a growing wave of copyright actions against Anthropic, which has also been sued by Round Hill Music, Universal Music Publishing, Concord, BMG, and most recently Reservoir Media over similar claims. Anthropic said it disagrees with the claims and intends to defend the case fully.

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