British rock group Pink Floyd has initiated legal action against record label EMI over disputed online royalty payments.
According to Reuters, the group – which signed a rather lucrative deal with EMI over 40 years ago – is now unhappy with the way their online royalty payments are calculated.
Indeed, Pink Floyd, whose hit albums included “Dark Side of the Moon” “and The Wall” is apparently dissatisfied with EMI’s practice of “unbundling” albums and selling individual tracks online.
According to Pink Floyd lawyer Robert Howe, an existing contractual clause “expressly prohibits” such unbundling or the marketing of tracks other than in their original digital or physical form.
Howe stated that EMI’s currently legal position was that the prohibition “applied only” to the physical product, and not online.
However, Howe noted that EMI’s justification made “no commercial sense” and was “contradicted” by the conditions used in agreement with EMI.