March 9 (Bloomberg) — Pink Floyd is suing record label EMI Group Ltd. in London over online royalty payments and the sale of single tracks. The band is asking for clarification to their more than 10- year-old recording contract with EMI, Pink Floyd’s lawyer, Robert Howe, said at a hearing in a London court today.
Robert Howe, PInk Floyd’s lawyer, said that when their contract was negotiated in 1998 and 1999, “both parties were faced with a whole new world of potential exploitation.”
“It was unclear whether record companies would be selling direct to the consumer or through retailers,” Howe added. Apple Inc.’s online music retailer iTunes “wasn’t launched in the U.K. until 2004. These negotiations were taking place six years before that.”
Pink Floyd’s contract with EMI says albums are to be sold as a whole with tracks in a specified order and not as singles, Howe said. That should include the band’s music sold online, he said.
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