One of the most prominent recent disputes over digital music royalties was settled this week – the lawsuit between artist Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) and label Domino Recordings. "They have recognised my original claim, that I should be paid a 50% royalty on streaming and downloads, and that they should be treated as a license rather than the same as a CD or vinyl sale," Four Tet tweeted. He actually published the settlement offer on Twitter too, revealing an offer of £56,921.08 to cover the difference in royalties between the 18% rate that he got for downloads and streams since 1 July 2017, and the 50% rate that he had sued for – Domino were originally refusing to pay the same rate on streams as compared to the 50% rate on physical sales as part of the original deal. Four Tet had signed to Domino in the early 00s when streaming wasn't even a thought. "Hopefully I’ve opened up a constructive dialogue and maybe prompted others to push for a fairer deal on historical contracts, written at a time when the music industry operated entirely differently," Four Tet summed up. It's certainly set a precedent and the settlement has been hailed as constructive by representative bodies such as the FAC and MMF. Via Four Tet Twitter
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