The remaining members of Pink Floyd – who are counted amongst some of the richest men in the United Kingdom – are suing their beleagured record label EMI in London’s High Court. Why? Because they want more money of course. After years of being quite irrelevant, the band who spent the 1960s and 1970s pushing the music envelope before becoming bloated stadium rock gods are finally back at the cutting edge of the music business.
It’s all to do with digital downloads of music they mostly recorded decades ago. The band are arguing in the case that they have been underpaid royalties by EMI under the terms of a contract they signed in 1998, years before digital downloading became commonplace. In the contract, there is a clause that says: ‘there are no rights to sell any or all of the records as single records other than with [Pink Floyd’s] permission’. The band are arguing that they want their music sold as seamless albums for artistic reasons, rather than as single songs; no doubt fearing that teenagers and students worldwide won’t spend hours stoned listening to whole albums. They reckon that EMI should have asked their permission and renegotiated their contract to sell single song downloads., which would also have a higher royalty rate per song than an album. EMI’s lawyer has stated in the label’s defence the word “record” applied only to actual discs and did not apply to downloads.
A ruling on the case is expected on Thursday and will most likely set a new precedent in music contract law. You can also be sure that lawyers for the likes of Led Zeppelin, who never released singles, and The Rolling Stones – because Mick Jagger’s a skinflint – will be watching proceeds very, very closely.
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