Elon Musk's social media platform X and major music publishers, including divisions of Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, have agreed to end their long-running copyright lawsuit against one another. The dispute began in 2024 when publishers, led by the National Music Publishers' Association, sued X for failing to sign a blanket licensing agreement covering copyrighted songs shared by users, unlike other major platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. The case mattered because it tested how far social media firms could be held liable for user uploads of unlicensed music, with X countersuing on antitrust grounds and accusing the publishers of colluding against it.

Court filings on Thursday 16 July confirmed both sides would voluntarily drop their claims, though no settlement terms were disclosed. The original publishers' suit had accused X of enabling infringement of more than 1,700 songs by writers including Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, exposing the platform to potential damages of $255 million; a judge had refused to dismiss the case in 2024, and settlement talks collapsed once before resuming last November. X's January countersuit had accused the NMPA and publishers of "weaponising" takedown requests as part of a collective monopoly conspiracy, but that claim remained at an early stage when the dismissal was filed, bringing the dispute to a close without any public admission of wrongdoing or licensing terms from either side.