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Commitments and Contingencies
12 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

Note 16 — Commitments and Contingencies

 

Contractual Obligations

 

As of March 31, 2023, the Company is obligated under agreements with Content Providers and other contractual obligations to make guaranteed payments as follows: $8.6 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, $0.6 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 and, $0.3 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026.

 

On a quarterly basis, the Company records the greater of the cumulative actual content acquisition costs incurred or the cumulative minimum guarantee based on forecasted usage for the minimum guarantee period. The minimum guarantee period of time is the period that the minimum guarantee relates to, as specified in each agreement, which may be annual or a longer period. The cumulative minimum guarantee, based on forecasted usage, considers factors such as listening hours, revenue, members, and other terms of each agreement that impact the Company’s expected attainment or recoupment of the minimum guarantees based on the relative attribution method.

 

Several of the Company’s content acquisition agreements also include provisions related to the royalty payments and structures of those agreements relative to other content licensing arrangements, which, if triggered, could cause the Company’s payments under those agreements to escalate, which included payments to be made in common stock. In addition, record labels, publishers and performing rights organizations with whom the Company has entered into direct license agreements have the right to audit the Company’s content acquisition payments, and any such audit could result in disputes over whether the Company has paid the proper content acquisition costs. However, as of March 31, 2023, the Company does not believe it is probable that these provisions of its agreements discussed above will, individually or in the aggregate, have a material adverse effect on its business, financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

 

On August 4, 2022, the Company entered into a settlement agreement with a certain music partner attributed to past royalties owed. The Company issued 800,000 shares of its common stock to the music partner and settled $0.4 million of accounts payable with the remaining value of the shares attributed to prepayment for future royalties. The fair value of the shares was determined to be $1.0 million based on the Company’s share price at the date the shares were issued. As of March 31, 2023, $0.1 million was recorded as a prepaid asset related to this transaction in order to fund future amounts owed for royalties. If the agreement is not terminated by the music partner after one year, the Company will issue an additional 200,000 shares as prepayment of future royalties.


In addition, the Company entered into additional arrangements with vendors to settle outstanding amounts owed in exchange for a cumulative amount of 597,918 shares of common stock with a fair value of $0.4 million. The fair value of the shares was determined to be $0.4 million based on the Company’s share price at the date the shares were issued.

 

Employment Agreements

 

As of March 31, 2023, the Company has employment agreements with three named executive officers (“Section 16 Officers”) that provide salary payments of $0.5 million and target bonus compensation of up to $0.5 million on an annual basis. Furthermore, such employment agreements contain severance clauses that could require severance payments in the aggregate amount of $10.5 million (excluding the value of potential payouts of discretionary bonuses, pro-rata bonuses, and potential accelerated vesting of equity awards granted to such executive officers).

 

The Company’s CEO has agreed to forgive his salary of $0.5 million per annum in exchange for shares of the Company’s common stock and/or restricted stock units to be issued in the future. As of March 31, 2023, the Company’s board of directors has not yet determined the number of shares of the Company’s common stock and/or restricted stock units to be issued to the CEO as such compensation.

 

Legal Proceedings 

 

On April 10, 2018, Joseph Schnaier, Danco Enterprises, LLC (an entity solely owned by Mr. Schnaier, “Danco”), Wantmcs Holdings, LLC (Mr. Schnaier is the managing member) and Wantickets (Mr. Schnaier is the 90% beneficial owner) filed a complaint in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York against the Company, LiveXLive Tickets, Inc. (“LXL Tickets”), Robert S. Ellin and certain other defendants. Plaintiffs subsequently voluntarily dismissed all claims against the other defendants. The complaint alleged multiple causes of action arising out of Schnaier’s investment (through Danco) into the Company in 2016, LXL Tickets’ purchase of certain operating assets of Wantickets pursuant to the Asset Purchase Agreement, dated as of May 5, 2017, and Mr. Schnaier’s employment with LXL Tickets, including claims for fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, conversion, and defamation. Based on the remaining claims, plaintiffs are seeking damages of approximately $10.0 million as shall be determined at trial, if any, plus interest, attorneys’ fees and costs and other such relief as the court may award. The Company has denied and continues to deny plaintiffs’ claims. The Company believes that the complaint is an intentional act by the plaintiffs to publicly tarnish the Company’s and its senior management’s reputations through the public domain in an effort to obtain by threat of litigation certain results for Mr. Schnaier’s self-serving and improper purposes. The Company is vigorously defending this lawsuit and believes that the allegations are without merit and that it has strong defenses. On June 26, 2018, the Company and LXL Tickets, filed counterclaims against the plaintiffs for breach of contract (including under the Asset Purchase Agreement), fraudulent inducement, and other causes of action, seeking injunctive relief, damages, attorneys’ fees and expenses and such other relief as the court may award. In October 2018, pursuant to the terms of the APA, the Company submitted a formal demand to Wantickets, Mr. Schnaier and Danco to indemnify the Company, among other things, for its costs and expenses incurred in connection with this matter. In November 2021, the court denied the Company’s summary judgment motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ fraudulent inducement claim and dismissed plaintiff’s breach of the employment agreement claim with respect to the Company. On October 6, 2022, New York Appellate Division reversed the trial court’s decision and ordered that defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the first and second causes of action should be granted. As of December 31, 2022, all of plaintiffs’ claims were dismissed or addressed by the parties or the court other than plaintiffs’ claims for fraudulent inducement related to payment of Wantickets’ audit costs, breach of contract based on Mr. Schnaier’s employment agreement with LXL Tickets, and fraudulent inducement due to plaintiffs alleged inability to sell their shares of Company’s common stock acquired pursuant to the APA. The trial was held in late April and early May 2023. In May 2023, the Company achieved a favorable outcome in this lawsuit, as the jury awarded damages to LXL Tickets in the amount of $0.23 million, together with costs and disbursements as taxed by the clerk and with statutory interest at 9% per annum from November 22, 2018, versus damages in the amount of $0.15 million, together with costs and disbursements as taxed by the clerk and with statutory interest at 9% per annum from June 29, 2018 awarded to the plaintiffs. Neither amount is material to the Company. The plaintiffs have indicated their intent to appeal certain rulings in this matter. As of June 29, 2023, the plaintiffs have yet to file the appeal. The Company intends to continue to vigorously defend all remaining defendants, if necessary, against any liability to the plaintiffs with respect to the remaining claims, and the Company believes that the allegations are without merit and that it has strong defenses. As of March 31, 2023, while the Company has assessed that the likelihood of a loss, if any, is not probable, the outcome of this lawsuit is inherently uncertain and the potential range of loss could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

On June 28, 2022, SoundExchange, Inc. (“SX”) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, against the Company and Slacker. The complaint alleged that the defendants have failed to make the necessary music royalty payments and corresponding late fees required under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act late allegedly due to SX. On October 13, 2022, the court entered a judgment against the defendants for the amount of $9.8 million. On February 3, 2023, the Company entered into an agreement to settle the dispute with SX and related court judgement entered against the defendants, pursuant to which the Company agreed to make certain monthly payments to SX for a period of 24 months and certain other payments in the event the Company obtains additional financing(s), unless the Company repays the judgment amount earlier pursuant to the terms of the agreement, and SX agreed not to take any action to enforce such judgment, so long as the defendants are not in default under the agreement.

 

During each of the quarters ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, the Company recorded legal settlement expenses relating to potential claims arising in connection with litigation brought against the Company by certain third parties were not material and were included in general and administrative expenses in the accompanying consolidated statement of operations.

 

From time to time, the Company is involved in legal proceedings and other matters arising in connection with the conduct of its business activities. Many of these proceedings may be at preliminary stages and/or seek an indeterminate amount of damages. In the opinion of management, after consultation with legal counsel, such routine claims and lawsuits are not significant and we do not currently expect them to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, or liquidity.


The CARES Act, passed in March 2020 and subsequently amended in 2021, allowed eligible employers to take credit up to 70% of qualified wages if the Company experienced either a full or partial suspension of the operation due to COVID related government orders. During the year ended March 31, 2022, the Company, with the guidance from a third-party specialist, determined it was entitled to $2.0 in employee retention credits for the previous business interruption related to COVID. The Company received $0.8 million and $1.2 million for the years ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, and reduced operating expense within its statements of operations.