Sting has reportedly paid more than $800,000 in royalties to his former The Police bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland since the pair filed a lawsuit against him last year.
You’ll remember this – the guitarist and drummer took Sting and his publishing company to London’s High Court in September, seeking what they described as “substantial damages” following years of disputes over royalty payments. They initially claimed they were owed between $2million and $10.75million in unpaid royalties.
At a hearing last week, on January 14, lawyers for Summers and Copeland argued that the figure could rise further, claiming that the alleged historic underpayment did not include interest. According to the BBC, the two musicians have now received payments totalling more than $800,000 since legal proceedings began.
Sting disputes that his former bandmates are entitled to a share of income generated from streaming and download platforms, maintaining that these formats should be classified as “public performance” rather than traditional sales.
Neither Summers nor Copeland received songwriting credits on The Police’s catalogue, which includes ‘Every Breath You Take’, a song reported to earn Sting around £550,000 per year in royalties alone. Despite this, they argue they are owed arranger’s fees linked to the digital exploitation of the band’s recordings.
Formed in 1977, The Police agreed early on that Summers and Copeland would receive 15 per cent of certain royalties from songs written by Sting. That agreement was amended several times, most recently in 2016. Sting’s legal team now describes the lawsuit as an attempt to improperly reinterpret the existing deal.
The Police sold more than 75 million records worldwide, won six Grammy Awards and two BRIT Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. After initially splitting in 1984, the band reunited on several occasions, most notably for a 2008 world tour that made them the highest earning musicians globally that year.
In 2021, Sting said he regretted reforming the band in 2007, later describing the reunion tour as “an exercise in nostalgia” and citing the creative freedom of his solo career as his preference.
Sting is next set to perform at a Super Bowl spinoff concert in San Francisco on February 6, two days before the main event in Santa Clara.
