George Lopez is the latest comedian to sue Pandora for unpaid royalties

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The lawsuits are piling up for the streamer, which has been accused by comedians of streaming their works without proper licenses. George Lopez is looking for over $5 million from the streamer.

Lopez filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, claiming that he was not paid royalties or licenses for two of his comedy albums. The filing said that Pandora decided to take action now to make sure it had the intellectual property it needed to remain competitive. It's later now. The representative for the parent company did not reply to the request.

Lopez's lawyer argues that his work is entitled to two copyrighted works, one for the recording and one for the underlying literary work. Publishing rights are new for spoken-word works. Comedy and other types of spoken-word content may be eligible for the same type of copyright if the cases are resolved.

The streamers are playing defense. John Mulaney and Tiffany Haddish's comedy albums were removed from the service after they failed to reach an agreement. Due to an ill-advised financial filing that said it streams comedy without a publishing license, comedians are being forced to waive their publishing rights.

It is a mess. Streamers don't want to pay royalties for spoken-word content which is cheaper for them to maintain than music Comedians want their legal and monetary dues for their works but also rely on the promotion they get from streaming to get people to their shows. George Lopez joining the fight will only intensify the heat as a resolution is unlikely.

The audio industry is growing every Tuesday.