The Allman Brothers Band has sued record company UMG
Recordings for $13 million in unpaid digital royalties for music the band has
made over the past four decades, reports Reuters.
Southern rock band The Allman Brothers Band, formed in 1969 and
active to this day, sued UMG Recordings, part of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music
Group, for $13 million on Monday, Aug. 11, over “digital exploitation.”
Papers filed in Manhattan federal court say UMG “refuses to
pay Plaintiffs at the correct royalty rate for its digital exploitation of the
Capricorn Masters,” including from compact discs, digital downloads and
ringtones, as quoted by Reuters.
Band members Greg Allman, Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson,
Butch Trucks and Dickey Betts are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Greg Allman and brother Duane Allman founded the band in the
late 1960s. Duane Allman passed away in 1971, in a motorcycle accident.
The suing band members are now asking for payments from the
sale of material the band recorded for its first label, Capricorn Records, from
1969 to 1980.
As Reuters explains, an agreement was settled in 1985
between the band and Polygram which took over the band’s catalog when Capricorn
Records collapsed in 1979 and was later acquired by Universal.
The agreement reportedly states that The Allman Brothers
Band would be paid half of profits from the sale of records by third parties (a
category which would include digital stores like Apple’s iTunes) or any other
commercial usage not specified in the contract.
The Allman Brothers Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1995. It boasts hits such as “Melissa,” “One Way Out” and “Ramblin’
Man”
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