Glassnote Records has responded to a dispute with Childish Gambino aka. Donald Glover over streaming royalties with a lawsuit.
Gambino — who was signed to Glassnote for three albums before agreeing a deal with RCA earlier this year – has claimed that his former label owes him over $1.5 million.
The money is said to be for the label’s 50% rights owner share of his royalties paid through SoundExchange for digital performance.
Having received the obligatory 45% performer’s share, minus the 5% that goes to session musicians, Gambino and team are reportedly asking for more.
Glassnote has responded to the request by filing a lawsuit in the US.
That suit reads: “Glover, apparently unsatisfied with the approximately $10 million in royalties already paid or due to him by Glassnote and the 45% of the public performance royalties from SoundExchange, took the position that he was entitled to the entirety of Glassnote’s 50% share of public performance royalties from SoundExchange – and that Glassnote was not entitled to any such royalty.
“Given Glover’s intransigence, Glassnote has no choice but to seek a declaration that it, and not Glover, is entitled to the 50% portion of the SoundExchange monies, and hereby requests such relief.”
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“Given Glover’s intransigence, Glassnote has no choice but to seek a declaration that it, and not Glover, is entitled to the 50% portion of the SoundExchange monies, and hereby requests such relief.”
The label has also hit back at this TMZ report headlined ‘Donald Glover sued by record label. You screwed us out of streaming cash!’.
In a statement handed to Pitchfork, Glassnote responded: “Unfortunately the reporting by TMZ is not accurate. We are not claiming Donald Glover screwed us out of anything.
“Donald Glover made a claim that he was owed 95% of SoundExchange royalties when we are legislatively and contractually required to share those royalties 50/45. When we tried to assert our position, he became strident.
“His lawyers sent a demand for $1.5 million and threatened a lawsuit on his behalf.
“We have simply asked the court to review the contract and to provide a declaration of relief that our position is correct pursuant to our contract and federal copyright law and that monies paid by SoundExchange to Glassnote can be retained by Glassnote, in the same way that monies paid by SoundExchange to Donald Glover can be retained by him.
“I’d like to point out that in our eleven years of operating we have never been in litigation with an artist.
“We are not asking for anything back from Donald Glover, just that we are able to retain the monies that are contractually and legally ours and that have already been paid to us.”
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