GekeVenn: SPOTIFY

At the tail end of last year, Wixen Music Publishing filed suit against Spotify to recover $1.6 billion in unpaid license fees. The suit was filed quickly in anticipation of the passage of a law called the Music Modernization Act (and yes, it passed in April of this year). Wixen knew that, if passed, this new law would prevent recovery of unpaid streaming licensing fees if the suits were filed after the law's deadline of January 1, 2018. Wixen came in under the wire, filing in late December, 2017.

Many other companies with similar gripes against Spotify missed this deadline, which makes the Music Modernization Act a very beneficial law for the Swedish company founded in 2008 by Daniel Ek. It's estimated that this law will protect Spotify from literally billions of dollars in damages. The bill had bipartisan and music industry support, but don't discount the fact that Spotify also employs a bevy of well-connected lobbyists.

Note that Spotify's in-house lobbyist Tom Manatos, in addition to his position in the Obama administration, also worked as a senior advisor to Speaker Pelosi (D) and for the Democratic National Committee. But for all his Democrat connections, he's also married to Dana Manatos who, along with her brothers Chris and Mark Edwards, worked for the Bush administration. The three left politics after Obama was elected and joined their family's chocolate business. Soon, they were granted an exclusive government contract: the only chocolate shop in the Pentagon.

Also note that Ted Sarandos, on Spotify's board of directors, enjoys a shadow tie here; he's married to an Obama administration ambassador.

NEC = National Economic Council