Did you hear about this, and I’m just late to the party? Limp Bizkit and frontman Fred Durst are suing Universal Music Group, saying the label owes them over $200 million! Durst’s lawyers say that he has “not seen a dime in royalties” over the decades and that the same thing may be happening to hundreds of other bands, too.
Yikes. Not a good look, Universal.
In the lawsuit (filed last Tuesday, October 8) in Los Angeles federal court, attorneys for Durst and the band accused UMG of implementing a “systemic” and “fraudulent” policy that was “deliberately designed” to conceal royalties from artists and “keep those profits for itself.”
Damn.
Durst’s lawyers said, “UMG’s creation of such a system, while holding itself out as a company that prides itself on investing in and protecting its artists, makes plaintiffs’ discovery of UMG’s scheme all the more appalling and unsettling. Adding, that “possibly hundreds of other artists” had also “unfairly had their royalties wrongfully withheld for years.”
Get this! Durst says, as recently as August, that Limp Bizkit has “never received any royalties from UMG”. WHAT?! How does that happen – they are a HUGE BAND. The lawsuit says Limp has sold millions of album and continues to have “millions of streaming users per month on Spotify alone”.
