Jimi Hendrix Bandmates’ Estates Take Major Label to Court Over Streaming Royalties
Photo by Marjut Valakivi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Jimi Hendrix’s former bandmates died in “relative poverty” while record labels continue to profit from their work through streaming, according to claims made by their estates in a major legal dispute.
The estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell have filed a case against Sony Music Entertainment UK (SMEUK) in the High Court. They argue the musicians were consistently denied a share of revenue from online music platforms, even though they helped create some of the most important rock albums of the 1960s. The case raises questions about how royalties are shared in the digital era and highlights long-running tensions around the legacy of The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Claims From the Estates of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell
The dispute is focused on copyright and performers’ rights connected to three landmark albums: Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love, and Electric Ladyland. All were recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience during the 1960s and have continued to stream widely today.
Simon Malynicz KC, representing the estates, told the court that the group was “one of the most commercially successful acts of its era.” He said the band formed in 1966 and ended shortly before Hendrix died in 1970 following a drug overdose. He argued that despite the lasting success of the recordings, “were excluded early on in their lifetimes” and “died in relative poverty,” while the music remained valuable in the streaming age.
Mr Malynicz added that the situation continued after their deaths, claiming that the successors to Redding and Mitchell “have also been consistently excluded” from revenue tied to their work, even though such rights are normally inheritable. He stressed that this exclusion did not come from Hendrix himself, saying it began with the estate managers, legal action after Hendrix’s death, and later “yet again by a major multinational which refuses to recognise or remunerate their copyright and performers’ rights.”
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How Copyright and Performance Rights Apply
To explain the case, Mr Malynicz outlined how music rights work. He noted that a recorded song usually includes different types of copyright, such as those connected to the composition and those tied to the sound recording. There are also separate rights held by the musicians who play on the recording.
He told the court the dispute is specifically about rights connected to the original sound recordings and the performances played by Redding and Mitchell. He asked the court to “ensure not only that justice is done to the memory of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, but it can also give effect to James Marshall Hendrix’s wishes. For surely, he would have wanted his fellow musicians to receive everything to which they are entitled.”
Sony Music’s Response and Earlier Settlements
In response, Mr Howe argued that previous legal action settled these issues decades ago. He said the predecessors connected to the estates “had previously relinquished their rights” and had “expressly authorised the defendant’s predecessors in title to do all of the acts of which complaint is made.”
He pointed to claims brought in New York during the 1970s, which ended in payments of $100,000 and $247,500 to Redding and Mitchell. Mr Howe also said the musicians “did not seek” to stop Hendrix’s estate from using the recordings during their lives, and continued to keep “close ties to Jimi Hendrix’s heirs and those managing his legacy.”
SMEUK has used the recordings since 2009 and says it is entitled to do so. Mr Howe used an analogy in court, saying the case was “the equivalent of suing the sub-tenant of one room in a house for trespass, as a device to try to obtain a declaration as to their alleged ownership of the house.”
The trial, led by Mr Justice Edwin Johnson, is expected to finish on 18 December, with a written judgment to follow.
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