London’s High Court on Wednesday started listening to a lawsuit introduced towards the singer Sting by his former Police bandmates claiming some $2 million in unpaid streaming royalties.
Guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland are taking authorized motion towards Sting, whose actual title is Gordon Sumner, arguing they’re entitled to the added royalties.
None of the band members was in court docket at first of a two-day preliminary listening to.
Sting is contesting the pair’s declare that they’re entitled to “in excess of U.S. $2 million” in so-called efficiency royalties of songs recorded as The Police, based on the court docket paperwork seen by AFP.
The plaintiffs are counting on an almost 50-year-old verbal settlement stipulating that every member of the group ought to obtain 15 % of the royalties generated by the opposite members’ compositions.
Sting, the trio’s bassist and singer, composed all their hits, from “Roxanne” to “Message in a Bottle”.
Consequently he receives by far the most important share of the group’s royalties.
The Police recorded 5 albums which have been launched between 1978 and 1983.
The unique settlement acknowledged the, at instances, essential contributions of the opposite two members, akin to Summers’ guitar arpeggios on “Every Breath You Take”.
The verbal settlement reached in 1977 was later formalised by a written settlement in 1981.
An extra settlement reiterated, albeit vaguely, the phrases in 1997, earlier than the existence of streaming.
The phrases have been reaffirmed in 2016 in an settlement meant to settle all monetary disputes between the members of the group whose relationship by then had lengthy develop into strained.
The time period “streaming”, nonetheless, was not explicitly talked about.
The dispute issues the classification of income generated from companies akin to Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music for the aim of royalty distribution.
Streaming income is historically divided between so-called “mechanical” royalties, collected for every replica of a composition, akin to information, and so-called “performance” royalties, paid for the printed of songs, for instance, on the radio.
But solely mechanical royalties are included within the 2016 settlement, one thing Summers and Copeland take into account opposite to the spirit of the unique 1977 settlement.
They are demanding their share of all streaming income. Representatives for Sting, who bought his catalogue to Universal in 2022 for a reported $250 million, have known as the authorized motion an “illegitimate” try to reinterpret the settlement.
They argue that a few of the sums paid might really represent overpayment.
© 2026 AFP