The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has sued Pandora for allegedly failing to adequately pay and report its monthly royalties, including in its accounting for its ad-supported tier “Pandora Free” (also known as “radio” or “free Pandora”).

In a lawsuit filed Monday (Feb. 12) in Nashville federal court, The MLC seeks to recover the royalties that Pandora allegedly owes them and all associated late fees. The MLC is particularly concerned with “unusually low royalties per stream” reported and paid out by Pandora, starting in 2021 which they say is due to the exclusion of substantial “Service Provider Revenue and TCC for Pandora Free.” (Total Content Cost or “TCC” refers to the amount paid by streaming services to record labels for the right to stream sound recordings. The TCC and Service Provider Revenue are essential to calculating the royalties due for this blanket license).

The MLC — which is tasked with administering the blanket mechanical license for musical works, created by the Music Modernization Act — also takes issue with Pandora’s lack of retroactive royalty accounting for 2021 and 2022.

In August 2023, the royalty rate for the license administered by The MLC for the years 2018-2022 was finally determined after a five year battle in which some streaming services fought to pay lower rates for music than the Copyright Royalty Board judges initially decided on. While awaiting the final rate determination, streamers, including Pandora, paid out the previous, lower royalty rate to the music business. Once the final determination was made, it set the rates higher than what the streaming services were paying previously. As a consequence, streamers were tasked to go back and retroactively pay the proper 2018-2022 rate for music.

The MLC says it “repeatedly” reminded Pandora to report its retroactive adjustments due for 2021 and 2022, and it set a deadline for Feb. 9, 2024, which it says Pandora did not reach. (The MLC did not open its doors until 2021, and thus the retroactive adjustments for 2018-2020 are not within its purview).

Pandora has made “repeated and significant underpayments of the royalties due,” says the MLC in its lawsuit.

The news comes just weeks after the MLC and its counterpart the Digital Licensee Coordinator (DLC) entered their first-ever re-designation process, a routine five year check-up to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the two organizations. The MLC has also made headlines recently for issuing its first-ever audit of streaming services. The organization is also being audited itself by Bridgeport Music, which represents George Clinton and Funkadelic.

Lately, the music business has been fighting back against what it feels are unfair or unpaid licensing rates. Universal Music Group recently pulled its catalog from TikTok, citing the app’s inability to pay “fair value” for music. Last summer, SoundExchange, which collects and distributes performance royalties for the digital transmission of sound recordings, sued SiriusXM, which owns Pandora, for an alleged $150 million in unpaid royalties, and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) sued Twitter for $250 million for “refusing to pay songwriters and music publishers.”

Representatives for Pandora and The MLC did not respond to Billboard’s request for comment at press time.

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Countdown to the 2024 Super Bowl parade! Whether you were rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs or Usher’s halftime show, now’s a good time to stock up on gear to celebrate the team’s 2024 Super Bowl win.

Although football fans will find a wide selection of Super Bowl-themed apparel and other must-have merch from the NFL Shop, Fanatics, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Amazon, Foco and Mitchell & Ness, there’s a chance that it’ll be out of stock by the Super Bowl parade. When is it? The parade will be on Wednesday, a.k.a. Valentine’s Day in downtown Kansas City, Mo.

To help you get a head start, we’ve compiled a list of 15 merch items that you can order now and have delivered before the parade.

Below, find a roundup of Chiefs and Super Bowl merch and apparel that’s still available.

Get it while its still can! Perfect for layering up on a cold day, this Kansas City Chiefs Team Legacy Varsity Jacket features is made from a blend of polyester and wool and features a button closure, side pockets and the embroidered Chiefs logos on the front, side and sleeve with rib-knit striping on the cuffs. The jacket comes in sizes S-4X Large but only select sizes are still available.

Get in gear for the Super Bowl parade in a limited-edition, Travis Kelce jersey complete with a Super Bowl LVIII patch. The jersey was released on Feb. 7 and available in sizes S-3XL. Click here to shop Patrick Mahomes’ jersey.

Celebrate the championship-winning Chiefs in this Fanatics Super Bowl LVIII Champions Iconic Victory T-Shirt. The men’s shirt is available in sizes S-5XL.

Scoop up this crewneck hoodie featuring a retro logo design. This sweatshirt is available in sizes XS-3XL.

A collectible to add to your mantel, the Patrick Mahomes bobble head is available for pre-order at Foco and will be released in May. The figurine measures 9.5 inches tall and shows the Super Bowl MVP standing behind two championship rings while holding a Super Bowl LVIII football.

Of course, Travis Kelce gets his own bobblehead! Like Mahone, Kelce’s bobblehead sits behind a double ring base and measure just under 10 inches. Foco will also be releasing a 3 foot tall bobblehead that retails for $1,700 and drops in July.

Need a game day cup? This travel mug keeps drinks cold, or hot, for hours at a time. The double-walled, vacuum-insulated, stainless-steeler Tumbler has a leak resistant lid and holds up to 30 ounces.

This Chiefs are in the kitchen! This plastic cutting features the NFL team’s logo on both sizes and measures 14-inches x 9-inches.

For a picnic, party or tailgating, this 7 quart cooler can store up to nine cans and features a separate storage pocket (it measures 10.81 x 8.13 x 11.41 inches). For more designs, click here to shop Igloo’s NFL Cooler Collection featuring all 32 NFL teams.

Taylor Swift’s boyfriend won the Super Bowl but that doesn’t mean Swifties can keep rooting for him in this $25 T-shirt from Amazon.

Slip on a pair of Kansas City Chiefs cuffs to celebrate the team’s Super Bowl victory. These comfy cuffs are made from a blend of terrycloth cotton, nylon and rubber and available for various team.

These FOCO friendship bracelets have gotten so popular, they’re No. 1 at Amazon. You can also find them at Foco.com.

WEAR by Erin Andrews is having a moment in the spotlight thanks to Taylor Swift. The pop star has worn the brand to multiple Chiefs games including the jacket that she wore to the Super Bowl along with this 87 varsity pendant from Stephanie Gottlieb. The cropped hoodie feature above is one of the many items that are almost out of stock from WEAR by Erin Andrews. Get it while you still can.

A comfy crewneck representing your favorite team. ThIS Abercrombie & Fitch crewneck sweatshirt is available in several NFL team designs including the Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants and Miami Dolphins (sizes S-XXL).

Act fast! The Game Day Dad Hat is trending at PacSun.com. Save 25% off this officially licensed, camouflage hat while supplies last.

These Kansas City Chiefs socks are made to fit men’s shoe size 9-13 and women’s sizes 10.5-14.

Timing really is everything in pop music. At various times in the last 20 years, an Usher Super Bowl set might have seemed too soon, too late or just not quite right. But while the pre-game debate was real about whether Usher was thuddingly obvious or a reach as a halftime headliner, by the time he stepped into the Allegiant Stadium spotlight Super Bowl LXVIII on Sunday night (Feb. 11) it should have been clear to everyone that the time was right for Usher to take the world’s biggest stage. And with his 15-minute, crowd-pleasing, decade-spanning set of classic hits, he reconfirmed his status as one of one of pop’s greatest living entertainers.

It was the culmination of a half-decade of subtle gains in career momentum for Mr. Raymond, who never totally disappeared, but spent most of the mid-to-late ’10s in commercial erosion amidst underwhelming sales and some tough headlines. But a handful of winning next-gen collabs, an impossibly perfect Hustlers cameo, a well-received Vegas residency (and a meme-spawning Tiny Desk performance) and his biggest chart hit in 10 years (“Good Good”) all served to both remind of his peerless pop and R&B legacy and revitalize his contemporary relevance. With a strong new album (Coming Home) arriving on Friday — just a couple days after the announcement of an upcoming arena tour, his first in nearly a decade, and a month before the 20th anniversary of his Confessions blockbuster — the stage was set in about every conceivable way on Sunday for Usher to answer any remaining “Usher??” questioning around his Super Bowl appearance with a big ol’ “YEAH!”

Unsurprisingly, he did exactly that. From the second he slipped off his robe to transition from early signature hit “My Way” to 2005 smash “Caught Up,” Usher was in control, gliding through about a dozen of his biggest hits — all top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100 hits, except the enduring Confessions fan-favorites “Superstar” and “Bad Girl” — with the effortlessness of a guy who’s been informally training for this opportunity his entire career. Big-name guests were greeted, shirts were shed, rollerskates were rollerskated and 15 minutes went by in a brilliantly choreographed blink.

Really, for a performance billed as the longest in Super Bowl history, the set was still perhaps most notable for its efficiency: expertly plotted transitions like the opening verse to “Nice & Slow” seamlessly igniting the hissing intro of “Burn” minimized downtime, while guests Alicia Keys, H.E.R., will.i.am and Lil Jon were smartly all given their own brief spotlight moments while Usher executed his costume changes and caught his changes. And while some of the buzzed-about home-run guests never quite materialized — sorry, BeyHive and Beliebers — the guests present provided an ideal spread of Usher’s underrated career versatility, equally convincing tearing the club up with Lil Jon, going future-pop with will.i.am and doing classic pop&B love duets with Keys.

The performance thrived more on small moments than true OH S–T jaw-droppers — not like Usher was ever likely to top Rihanna’s reveal from last year in that department. But it was such a rich production that you could’ve missed some of the best details, like the marching band that punctuated set closer “Yeah!” spelling out U-S-H-E-R in the bottom-left corner of your screen, or the wrist-watch graphic projected onto the stage below him during “Nice & Slow” highlighting a 7:00 (on the dot) time. And Usher certainly showcased some of his more unique skills as a performer, turning the stage into a roller-rink (and skating between will.i.am’s legs) on “OMG” and tearing his top off during the climactic “U Got It Bad,” flaunting a still-chiseled physique that should make him the seething envy of 45-year-old males worldwide.

If there was fault to be found with Usher’s halftime performance, it would likely focus on the insufficient mic-ing on his early vocals, which undersold softer moments like his falsetto’d verses on “U Don’t Have to Call” — he’s a strong vocalist, but not so much a powerhouse that he couldn’t have used a little extra juice there. And while it’s not tragic that stellar current hit “Good Good” didn’t make the cut for the tracklist, it was a little bit of a bummer that 2010’s “OMG” was his only song from the last 15 years that did — while most of Usher’s biggest songs may have come pre-Obama, he’s never stopped releasing excellent singles and albums (and had sizable hits with a number of them). It does Ush a little bit of a disservice to present him solely as a catalog act.

But these are relatively small complaints for a thoroughly satisfying, comeback-capping performance from Usher Raymond. “They said I wouldn’t be here today,” he commented while dedicating his rendition of “Superstar” to his mother. “Hey Mama, we made it.” From another performer — especially one with Usher’s exceptional resumé — it could have easily come off as Khaledian bluster, but for Ush, it felt like a fairly well-earned moment of triumph. And whoever they are, they probably won’t be making such comments again anytime soon.