Eminem Wins Online Royalty Dispute

Eminem

EMINEM and his producers, F.B.T. PRODUCTIONS, won another victory this week in their ongoing dispute with UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP over how royalties are divided for music sold online, reports THE TENNESSEAN. "A federal court in CALIFORNIA ruled that the record label could not take deductions for certain transactional services it routinely provided during the now-fading era of physical album and CD sales. That’s because licensing online music to companies like iTUNES or cellphone companies no longer requires expensive services like packaging CDs."

U.S. District Judge PHILIP GUTIERREZ ruled that "container deductions" and "new medium deductions" may not be subtracted from the royalties owed to the artist and his or her production company for music sold online.

The ruling means "record labels must split the profits from online music sales 50-50, with the artist and producers. The split until now had been closer to 12% of profits (after companies such as iTUNES or VERIZON's share) going to the artist and their creative team, with the record label retaining the rest," added THE TENNESSEAN.

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