Jimi Hendrix Bandmates’ Heirs Sues Sony Music

Jimi Hendrix Bandmates’ Heirs Sues Sony Music | Society Of Rock Videos

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The heirs of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell of the The Jimi Hendrix Experience, has filed a lawsuit against Sony Music over alleged copyright infringement.

This new lawsuit follows a filing made by Sony Music and the Hendrix estate weeks ago in a New York federal court, which states that the estates of Redding and Mitchell do not have the right to sue them for copyright claims.

On Friday, February 4, the heirs of Redding and Mitchell fired back with a case of their own in London’s High Court of Justice seeking royalties and claiming they own a stake in the band’s music for streaming rights and digital media revenue.

It is estimated that music by the group has been streamed more than 3 billion times, a number which, lawyers declare, earns “millions of pounds” per year.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience released three albums between 1967 and 1968 before breaking up the following year after Redding quit the band. Mitchell continued to play intermittently with him until his death in May 2003. Hendrix died in 1970, and Mitchell died in 2008.

British attorney, Lawrence Abramson said that Redding and Mitchell,

“died in relative poverty having never received their true entitlement from their works, performances and founding membership of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.”

Hendrix’s representatives argue that following the Hendrix’s death, Redding and Mitchell signed away their rights to the music in the mid-’70s and would have only pertained to the music formats of that time and would not apply to streaming as “none of the parties would have been able to foresee or contemplate” that source of revenue.

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