Overview
- The High Court in London held a preliminary hearing on January 14 to review claims by Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland over unpaid streaming royalties, with no band members in attendance.
- Summers and Copeland cite band agreements dating to 1977 and formalized in 1981 that grant each member a 15% share of royalties from the others’ compositions, which they say should include streams on services like Spotify and Apple Music.
- The musicians seek more than $2 million, arguing a 2016 settlement dealt with mechanical rights only and did not resolve payments from digital platforms.
- Sting’s legal team rejects the lawsuit as an illegitimate reinterpretation of prior deals and says some sums already distributed may represent overpayments.
- The dispute follows Sting’s 2022 sale of his catalog to Universal for a reported $250 million, sharpening focus on how legacy contracts apply to modern revenue streams.