According to Law360 and Variety report, Universal Music Group is being sued over King Crimson’s sample in Kanye West’s “Power.” The track famously incorporates a sample from King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” and mechanical rights holder Declan Colgan Music Ltd believes UMG underpaid streaming payments for “Power.”
“Power” is featured on West’s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and the track’s credits include members of King Crimson. According to Variety, UMG and DCM have agreed to pay King Crimson a royalty rate of 5.33 percent on all sales or “otherwise exploited” for copies of “Power.” Additionally, the agreement stipulates that DCM’s earnings will be split in the same manner as West’s, and the rapper’s contract with UMG purportedly provided that he would receive comparable royalty figures for streaming the tracks and physical song sales.
According to DCM and its attorneys, the issue is that UMG pays DCM a low amount for “Power” streams. The label is paying DCM a portion of the revenue generated through streams—less than what CD sales would have generated.
DCM filed its lawsuit in the High Court of Justice of the United Kingdom. Similarly, Four Tet has filed a complaint in the High Court about the translation of royalty rates into the streaming age. The cases are being filed in response to UK lawmakers’ efforts to investigate the streaming economy.
