Four Tet Wins Royalty Battle Over Streaming Music (bbc.com) 12
Pioneering electronic artist Four Tet has reached a settlement in the legal battle against his former record label. The result could set a legal precedent for contract disputes in the music business; where royalty rates have been subject to heavy scrutiny since last year's inquiry into the streaming market by MPs on the Culture Select Committee. The BBC reports: The musician, whose real name is Kieran Hebden, sued Domino Records last year over the royalties he gets paid when his music is downloaded or streamed. He argued that the 13.5% royalty rate he was being offered was unfair, and demanded a 50% split with the label. In a settlement, Domino agreed to the honor the 50% rate and reimbursed the musician for historic underpayments.
It was quite a reversal for the indie label, which originally responded to the case by removing several Four Tet albums from streaming services (they were later reinstated). "It has been a difficult and stressful experience to work my way through this court case and I'm so glad we got this positive result," wrote Hebden in a statement announcing the settlement. "Hopefully I've opened up a constructive dialogue and maybe prompted others to push for a fairer deal on historical contracts, written at a time when the music industry operated entirely differently."
It was quite a reversal for the indie label, which originally responded to the case by removing several Four Tet albums from streaming services (they were later reinstated). "It has been a difficult and stressful experience to work my way through this court case and I'm so glad we got this positive result," wrote Hebden in a statement announcing the settlement. "Hopefully I've opened up a constructive dialogue and maybe prompted others to push for a fairer deal on historical contracts, written at a time when the music industry operated entirely differently."
They used to have excuses (Score:3)
Record labels used to have excuses about the abysmally low rates to artists, about how printing and distributing media costs etc. Now it doesn't cost anything to distribute music and they are running out of excuses... This was an "indie" label too.
Re: (Score:2)
As someone that's worked in and around the music industry, the old ways were easy to sell to the artists. You got studio time, you got all sorts of professionals involved in production, including ridiculous things like "microphone calibrators." (Actually saw a band billed for that once.) Then you have printing media and distribution.
Now, especially in the indie labels, the expectation is that you do all your recording yourself, hand off the mostly completed tracks for mastering, maybe for mixing, then the l
Lyrics (Score:2, Funny)
I didn't like the lyrics in his songs, it was insulting. To be frank, I found Tet offensive.
Re: Lyrics (Score:2)
The songs have no lyrics.
Mostly right, but still wrong. (Score:2)
I'm a Four Tet fan, at least from 20 years ago, and No More Mosquitoes [youtube.com] is one of my favorite songs...
Not a victory. (Score:2, Interesting)
Reaching a settlement isn't a victory because it doesn't set any sort of precedent. It might be advantageous for this one artist who can afford to fight them but it's not a victory.
Re: (Score:2)
Came here to say this. Settlement != precedent. This is a minor battle victory in a major war.
Disclosure of compensation (Score:3)
If I were a recording artist, I would accept condition 1 (forgiveness of all alleged guilt) and 3 (dismissal of this claim) as typical of any settlement out of court, though I'd do my best to negotiate down condition 2 (secrecy of compensation), which I consider anticompetitive. How insistent on secrecy of compensation are record labels and music publishers usually?