Filed under: Apple Corporate, iTS, iTunes
Eminem loses iTunes royalty case
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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sam Stone said 1:41PM on 3-09-2009
"(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.
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matthew said 2:22PM on 3-09-2009
I think the article meant that the kid's performance in the commercial was not necessarily worthy of the label "rapping", not a disparagement to rap as a musical genre.
Martin said 2:25PM on 3-09-2009
Then the intention wasn't very clear, as I also read it in a condescending way as Sam Stone did. As in, "whatever those kids are calling their shennanigans nowadays."
Damien K. said 3:43PM on 3-09-2009
...well rap does suck so what does it matter?
MirrorMirror said 3:53PM on 3-09-2009
@Damien: Moron.
grull27 said 4:21PM on 3-09-2009
You're the idiot for saying that Eminem isn't the best person to listen to to realize the art of the Rap/Hip-hop culture!
MirrorMirror said 4:41PM on 3-09-2009
He isn't. It's fact.
Hes mediocre at best. Explore Rap abit, and you'll see what I mean ;)
Damien K. said 5:08PM on 3-09-2009
I've seen sixth graders come up with better rhymes... cmon its all a show nowadays, who gives a shit anymore.
grull27 said 7:03PM on 3-09-2009
I've listened to Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest or the Wu-Tang and much more. Eminem is better than those guys. Eminem is a legend, not mediocre. You could argue that he is CURRENTLY mediocre but when you drop albums like Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show, you're not mediocre overall.
TexRob said 2:37PM on 3-09-2009
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.
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Joe Canadian said 2:55PM on 3-09-2009
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.
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G said 7:17PM on 3-10-2009
On top of that, Apple's cut is far less than 50%. So the argument as described above would make no sense.
MirrorMirror said 5:11PM on 3-09-2009
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.
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Vijay said 7:33PM on 3-09-2009
Is there a link to the Eminem music video from 2005? I'm curious to see it.
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erpettie said 2:46PM on 3-10-2009
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.
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