Mr Probz sues Sony Music again in ongoing royalties dispute

completemusicupdate.com:

The Dutch artist and producer Dennis Stehr, better known as Mr Probz, has filed new legal proceedings against Sony Music in the Amsterdam courts in an ongoing dispute over how the major calculates and reports his royalties.He accuses the major of deliberately failing to calculate his cut of any income on an ‘at source’ basis and of withholding bookkeeping files that his accountants need to see in order to effectively audit the money he is due.

The legal action seeks “full payment of royalties after the deduction of a reasonable distribution fee to Sony Music”, which Stehr reckons equates to millions of euros.Stehr and his company Left Lane Recordings originally entered into a licensing deal with Sony in the Netherlands in 2013 in relation to his track ‘Waves’ and the Robin Schulz remix of that recording.

A subsequent deal the following year gave the Sony-allied US-based dance label Ultra involvement in the tracks in North America.The royalty rate Stehr and Left Lane received from those deals varied between 20% and 50% depending on the market and some other factors, but crucially with digital income the artist’s share was to be calculated based on the monies received from each digital service by any Sony subsidiary or partner in any market.That provision – ie that the artist royalty be calculated based on ‘at source’ income – seeks to address a common gripe that artists have had over the years with record deals.

Labels often allow local subsidiaries and partners to manage the release of their recordings in other markets, and those local subsidiaries and partners will then usually charge a commission on any income.Which poses the key question, if the artist is due 20% of any monies generated by their recordings, is that.