The era of the online purchase, digital download, and streaming service definitely threw the music business for a loop and looks like there’s still hiccups in the system. Now Universal Music Group Coughs Up 11.5M to Artists for Digital Royalties Dispute and will forever change the royalty structure for artists from now on. How the money’s getting split and who else was behind the lawsuit besides Hip Hop’s own Chuck D is one thing, but exactly what changes???
Universal Music Group Coughs Up 11.5M to Artists for Digital Royalties Dispute after a semi-successful change has been made in the business that controls a lot of the music we love. It was a few months back Universal was suing prison vending companies for selling albums and mixtapes—now artists are getting a little* bit of their just due. $11.5 million isn’t much but “one small step for artists” one could say?
XXL reports it starting with a group of artists including Public Enemy’s front-man Chuck D and the estate of Rick James who chose not to sit still while being shorted. They say Universal was shrinking their financial responsibility to the tune of 15% back to the artist as oppose to upwards of 50% (yikes). The ongoing gray area has been how to treat and quantify digital content as well as the actual creators of the art—we’d already seen Billboard change the way it charts digital music and now Tidal comes from a different angle. Now Universal Music Group Coughs Up 11.5M to Artists for Digital Royalties Dispute and tries to stop a change in the “letter of the law.” CBS Local LA reports:
The artists claim that record labels should treat digital download income as “licenses” rather than “sales,” which would give artists 50 percent of the income instead of the 15 percent they currently receive.
The tentative agreement comes after a federal appeals court ruled five years ago in Los Angeles that rapper Eminem and the music production company that helped launch his career are entitled to increased royalties from digital downloads of the entertainer’s music on Apple’s iTunes and other online retailers.
Universal has settled but did not admit wrongdoing, issuing the following statement:
“Although we are confident we appropriately paid royalties on digital downloads and adhered to the terms of contracts, we are pleased to amicably resolve this matter and avoid continued legal costs.”
The settlement has amounted to $200,000 each for the handful of actual plaintiffs (artists including Chuck D and a member of the Temptations) as well as $3 million to lawyers fees (know how that goes). The rest will be split among all the Universal artists who are owed dating back to 1960 (daaaamn, SMH!!!). While Universal Music Group Coughs Up 11.5M to Artists for Digital Royalties Dispute, they say all artists will now get a 10% bump “across the board,” ensuring artists make more (and they’ll have to cough up less). Still if you were making 15%, you’re at about 16.5% with the bump (SMH).
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