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Eminem loses iTunes royalty case

by Dave Caolo Mar 9th 2009 at 1:30PM

Eminem's production company, FBT Productions, has been arguing that their artist is entitled to half of all royalties generated by sales of his music in the iTunes Store. Of course, Apple takes a commission before the artist receives their compensation. FBT's argument hinged upon whether the arrangement constitutes a licensing agreement.

MacNN reports that a Los Angeles jury decided no, iTunes is simply another distribution channel, so Em will not be receiving the $1.47 million he was after. Bummer, dude.

This certainly isn't the first time Eminem's legal team has clashed with Apple's. Back in May of 2005, Apple was forced to pull an iPod ad that featured a young user singing (Rapping? Speaking?) the lyrics to "Lose Yourself." The story at the time was that Eminem refused to give Apple permission to use the song, but they did anyway.

Later that same year, the folks at Lugz footwear had Apple pull an Eminem-approved TV ad that looked a lot like their own. Oops.

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Eminem's production company, FBT Productions, has been arguing that their artist is entitled to half of all royalties generated by sales of...
 

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erpettie

Although Eminem's music was what the case was about, Eminem was not actively involved in this case and made it clear that it was between FBT and Interscope, not him and Interscope.

March 10 2009 at 2:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vijay

Is there a link to the Eminem music video from 2005? I'm curious to see it.

March 09 2009 at 7:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam Stone

Yes, but nearly everything mainstream sucks now-a-days. While I agree, Rap was better late '80s, early '90s, but if you dig deep enough, you still get some awesomeness-ess.

March 09 2009 at 5:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe Canadian

TUAW, I think you have it wrong. Eminem's lawsuit was not with Apple, but with Universal record company. In the US, Apple pays all the royalties to the record labels and they pay the royalties out to the appropriate people.

The way I understand things, Eminem's publishing company was arguing that Universal wasn't given them the share they were entitled to.

March 09 2009 at 2:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Joe Canadian's comment
G

On top of that, Apple's cut is far less than 50%. So the argument as described above would make no sense.

March 10 2009 at 7:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TexRob

TUAW!?!?!?! This has been on 20 other sites before you posted it, and you still posted it wrong. Eminem had zero involvement in it, it was his production company.


March 09 2009 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam Stone

"(Rapping? Speaking?)"

Granted, Eminem isn't the best person to listen to to realise the art of the Rap/Hip-hop culture, but have you got a justified reason for taking down Rap music with that comment?

Listen to some Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest or the Wu-Tang, then come back and we'll talk.

March 09 2009 at 1:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
8 replies to Sam Stone's comment
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