MUMBAI: In a fresh ruling by a federal court which sided rap artiste Eminem and his production company in a dispute with Universal Music Group over digital music royalties, as per reports
Reversing a lower-court jury decision from last year, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the record label had to pay Eminem and the production company who helped launch Eminem’s career, F.B.T. Productions, a bigger cut for music sold online through downloads and mobile-phone ring tones than for the same music sold in stores. The court found out that F.B.T.’s contract entitled Eminem and his producers to a 50-50 split with Universal for recordings licensed to digital distributors such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes.
The record label had paid F.B.T. and Eminem 12 percent of sales, the agreed-upon rate for physical albums.
According to legal experts the decision could shake up the entire music industry with potentially millions of dollars at stake, and boost the fortunes of untold numbers of artists.
F.B.T. discovered Eminem in 1995 before he signed in 1998 with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records. Universal’s Interscope Records distributes Aftermath recordings.