XML 35 R24.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.22.4
Commitments and Contingencies
9 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2022
Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

Note 16 — Commitments and Contingencies

 

Promotional Rights

 

Certain of the Company’s content acquisition agreements contain minimum guarantees and require that the Company makes upfront minimum guarantee payments. As of December 31, 2022, the Company has licenses, production and/or distribution agreements to make guaranteed payments as follows: $0.1 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. These agreements also provide for a revenue share that ranges between 35% and 50% of net revenues. In addition, there are other licenses, production and/or distribution agreements that provide for a revenue share of 50% on net revenues; however, without a requirement to make future minimum guaranteed payments irrespective to the execution and results of the planned events.

 

Contractual Obligations

 

As of December 31, 2022, the Company is obligated under agreements with Content Providers and other contractual obligations to make guaranteed payments as follows: $2.0 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, $1.3 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 December 31, 2022, 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 December 31, 2022, $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.

 

Employment Agreements

 

As of December 31, 2022, 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 December 31, 2022, on 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 has been scheduled for April 2023. The Company intends to continue to vigorously defend all remaining defendants 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 December 31, 2022, 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 $9,765,396.70. In February 2023, the Company and SX settled the dispute as described in Note 21 – Subsequent Events.

 

During each of the quarters ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, 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 condensed 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.