Settlement Announced Involving Royalties for Downloads and Mastertones with Warner Music Group

The following is being released by the law firms of Pearson, Simon & Warshaw, LLP, Hausfeld LLP, Kiesel Law LLP, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Phillips, Erlewine & Given, LLP.

A settlement valued at a minimum of $11.5 million has been reached in a class action lawsuit over how Warner Music Group calculated royalties for downloads and mastertones of recordings.  Warner Music Group denies any wrongdoing.

People who have the right to receive royalties from contracts dated before January 1, 2002 with a Warner Music Group U.S. Label that pays on a Royalty Rate Basis or a Penny Rate Basis may be eligible for the following benefits from the Settlement:

(1)  Cash payments for past royalties paid.

(2)  An increase in download and mastertone royalties going forward. The increase in future royalty payments will give artists an increase of 5 percentage points in their royalty rate on U.S. exploitations of downloads and mastertones (or more if necessary to reach a floor of 10%, capped at a maximum of 14%) and a 2.5 percentage point increase on foreign exploitations.

Warner Music Group U.S. Labels include:

• Atlantic Recording Corporation
• Bad Boy Records LLC
• Elektra Entertainment Group Inc.
• Fueled By Ramen LLC
• Nonesuch Records Inc.
• Rhino Entertainment Company
• Warner Bros. Records, Inc.
• Word Entertainment LLC

In order to receive benefits from the Settlement, a valid claim must be submitted by May 31, 2014.

People who want to keep the right to sue Warner Music Group must exclude themselves from the Settlement by May 31, 2014. People who stay in the Settlement may object to it by May 31, 2014. People who do not exclude themselves or who do nothing will be bound by the Court's decisions.

The Court will hold a hearing on October 2, 2014 to consider whether to approve this Settlement and a request for attorneys' fees up to $2,875,000 plus reimbursement of costs and expenses.  People impacted may appear and speak, or may hire their own lawyer to appear and speak, at the hearing at their own expense.

More information about the Settlement, including rights and benefits, is available at 

www.wmgdownloadsettlement.com or by calling 1-877-690-7098. 

SOURCE Pearson, Simon & Warshaw, LLP, Hausfeld LLP, Kiesel Law LLP, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Phillips, Erlewine & Given, LLP


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