Allman Brothers Sue Universal Music For $13M in Unpaid Digital Royalties

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Rafat Ali

paidContent.org
Tuesday, August 12, 2008; 1:07 AM

Members of The Allman Brothers Band have sued Universal Music-owned UMG Recordings for about $13 million, over royalties from compact discs sales and digital downloads services, reports Reuters. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said UMG "refuses to pay Plaintiffs at the correct royalty rate for its digital exploitation of the Capricorn Masters," including from CDs, digital downloads and ringtones.

The specific disagreement is on a 1985 agreement between the band and Polygram, which Universal later bought, that said the band would be paid half of profits on any other commercial usage not specified in the agreement, but UMG had paid only a small fraction of what the band deserved, and refused to renegotiate royalties for digital downloads and ringtones.

The Southern rock group was formed in the late 1960s and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

Early bird ticket sales for our EconMusic conference at the Natural History Museum in London are open.