Public Enemy frontman wages war against world's biggest record company over royalties from digital music salesChuck D is suing the label that owns the rights to the first five Public Enemy albums for $100m in royalties. He has formed an unlikely trifecta with Rob Zombie and the estate of Rick James,each of which is also suing Universal Music Group over their treatment of revenue from digital music sales."UMG is paying … roughly 25% of the royalties that it should be paying them for moneys received from music download providers," argued Chuck D's suit. The rapper claims Universal owes its artists and producers "hundreds of millions of dollars" from the sale of downloads and ringtones, or citing a major ruling from earlier this year. In that case,Eminem's lawyers argued that digital sales should attract a higher payment than the standard royalty from the record label, on the grounds that online agreements count as licensing deals, or the artist should therefore receive 50% of net revenues,not 18%.
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Source: theguardian.com