Weird Al Sues Sony Music for $5 Million

posted in: Music News

In case after case, the major record labels have sued everyone from college students to Napster, ostensibly on behalf of their artists. Unfortunately, it seems these gardian angels of the music industry may be less vigilant when it comes to their own accounting. According to Billboard, Weird Al Yankovic is suing Sony Music through his company, Ear Booker Enterprises, for $5,000,000. Yankovic is accusing Sony of acting improperly as the company took duplicate recoupments of his music – resulting in lower royalty payments. In addition, it is alleged the company has fallen short on their licensing contract with Yankovic – merely paying straight royalties for download sales instead of the 50% of revenues Yankovic’s licensing deal entitles him to. Most notably, Yankovic is accusing Sony Music of  hypocritically refusing to share any money it received from lawsuit settlements from sites such as Napster, Kazaa and Grokster. Further, the lawsuit states that Yankovic is entitled to a portion of deal Sony made with YouTube – providing the website with “White and Nerdy” and other “official” Weird Al content.

Billboard reports Sony Music has yet to respond publicly to the allegations.