Four Tet’s albums return to streaming as he signs new publishing deal with Universal

nme.com:

Four Tet‘s albums released under Domino have been returned to streaming platforms as news broke that he has inked a new publishing deal with Universal.The producer and DJ, whose real name is Kieran Hebden, signed with Domino in 2001 for the release of his second album ‘Pause’ before going on to release ‘Rounds’ (2003), ‘Everything Ecstatic’ (2005) and ‘There Is Love In You’ (2010) on the label.But last November Hebden revealed that Domino had removed three of those albums (‘Pause’, ‘Rounds’ and ‘Everything Ecstatic’) in a bid to stop a legal case that he launched last August over historic downloads/streaming royalty rates.In that ongoing lawsuit Hebden claims that the label is in breach of contract over its 18 per cent royalty rate, which Domino applied to record sales, and that a “reasonable” rate of 50 per cent should have been given to downloads/streams.The contract between Hebden and Domino, which was signed in February 2001 long before the proliferation of streaming platforms and the first iPod, stated that record sales are subject to a royalty rate of 18 per cent.Domino has argued that, because digital downloads (including streams) were considered a new technology format in the early ’00s, Hebden is only entitled to 75 per cent of 18 per cent of the dealer price (i.e.

a 13.5 per cent royalty rate), although it had raised it to 18 per cent on a discretionary basis.Now, it’s been confirmed that Four Tet’s ‘Pause’, ‘Rounds’ and ‘Everything Ecstatic’ and other music has been returned to streaming services after a judge ruled that Hebden’s legal team should be allowed to pursue a case for breach of contract over the removal of albums from DSPs.This move is in addition to the existing breach of contract claim over.