Musings of the Great Eric

Classic rock acts sue Sony over digital sales royalties:

The recent spike in online digital music sales has been great news for the Big Four record labels and the music stores doing the selling. In fact, downloads are so strong right now that EMI has recently been able to reverse a years-long revenue decline. Are the artists getting to share in all the downloading love? According to a lawsuit filed by The Allman Brothers and Cheap Trick, they’ve been tied to the whipping post by Sony, receiving only a small fraction of the money made off of downloads.

According to the lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, Sony makes about 70¢ for each track sold on the iTunes Music Store and other online services. Of that, roughly 4.5¢ is passed on to the bands. Cheap Trick and The Allman Brothers say that under the terms of their contracts, they are supposed to receive roughly 30¢ per track sold.

I seriously hope Sony get’s nailed to the wall over this. There’s no other content company that deserves it more.

Technorati Tags: Sony, Digital Music, lawsuits