A Nashville federal judge has declined to rule on competing requests for judgment in a lawsuit between Pandora and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), sending the dispute towards a jury trial. The case concerns whether Pandora’s free, radio-style service should pay the higher mechanical royalty rates that apply to interactive streaming platforms; no trial date has been set, and a settlement remains possible.

The MLC sued Pandora in 2024, alleging that its free tier was wrongly classified as noninteractive to avoid higher payments. Pandora denies the claim and says the ruling does not decide the merits of the case. Judge Eli Richardson cited the 263 submitted documents, totalling more than 7,000 pages, as a reason to address the contested issues at trial; Pandora’s premium on-demand tier already pays interactive rates, while its free tier is treated as noninteractive.