John Mulaney, Jim Gaffigan, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, and Mike Birbiglia were among the comedians who were removed from the streaming service due to royalty payment disputes.
The comics joined a coalition led by a global rights administration company to get paid royalties for jokes they've written that are played on radio or digital audio services.
The global rights company was sent an email by the streaming service, saying it was taking down the comedians' content until an agreement could be reached.
The creators of spoken-word media like comedians' jokes are helped by Spoken Giants. The company has been in talks with other entities.
Jim King, a former executive at music rights company BMI, said thatSpotify gives entertainers exposure and access to large audiences. It is harmful to each individual creator if their work is taken down.
More artists are demanding higher royalties from streaming services. The rates for royalties were raised by the US Copyright Board. Major music and audio streamers, like Apple, Amazon, and Google, said they were fighting royalty boost.
According to the Wall Street Journal, comedians are paid through their label or distributor and SoundExchange every time a digital service streams their content. comics are not paid as writers of their own work, like how songwriters are paid for the use of their music and lyrics
King said that comedians can collect more money from their work with streaming and increased listenership.
"Significant amounts of money for the content in question, and would love to continue to do so," a Spotify spokesman told Insider, noting that the comedians' labels and distributors are also a part of the conversation.
"However, given that Spoken Giants is disputing what rights various licensors have, it's imperative that the labels that distribute this content, Spotify, and Spoken Giants come together to resolve this issue to ensure this content remains available to fans around the globe."
Despite the move to drop comedians from the platform, Spoken Giants plans to resume conversations with Spotify.
