Donald Glover sued by a record company on Childish Gambino Royalties – Variety

Glbadnote Records, the label that hosts groups as famous as Phoenix and Aurora, continues Donald Glover, whose name is Childish Gambino, on the royalties that the company owes them on the non-interactive streams of his music.

Since signing with Glbadnote in 2011, Glover, like Gambino, has released three albums and a series of mixtapes. His latest album, "Awaken, My Love!," Won the title "Redbone".

According to a lawsuit filed on July 6, the label claims that it needs half of the $ 700,000 that Glover received from SoundExchange for what is known as the "royalties of "non-interactive digital performance" – the amounts paid for by streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM and other webcasters that are considered digital radios. Typically, such royalties would go to the label that would split the fees based on his contract with the artist. In the case of Childish Gambino, Glbadnote was entitled to a 50 per cent share of these public performance royalties. The other 50% was due to Glover (45%) and to participating participating artists and producers (5%).

But for reasons that are not entirely clear from the lawsuit, other than the license term expiring in 2017 (Glover signed with RCA Records in January), Glover insists that he is entitled to 100% performance fees and collected the fees directly from SoundExchange.

In relationship

For its part, Glbadnote reveals that it has already paid Glover $ 8 million over the life of the contract and that it expects to pay him $ 2 million more before their activities are done one with the other. In addition, the trial notes that Glbadnote has borne all the financial risks by launching Gambino and has advanced sums against future royalties as well as committed to spending a minimum of $ 200,000 for "Awaken, My Love " – Expenses that Glbadnote "surpbaded," reads the deposit.

According to the lawsuit: "At the end of 2017, the license agreement expired shortly after, Glover, apparently dissatisfied with the royalties of about $ 10 million already paid or owed by Glbadnote and 45 % of SoundExchange's public performance royalties, stated that it was entitled to the full 50% share of Glbadnote states that it had previously 'enjoyed a creative relationship and productive and profitable business. "Glover owned his master recordings, but granted Glbadnote's operating rights." Things went south and reached the bottom around June 28 when, according to the filing, Glover's legal representatives demanded "a payment of $ 1.5 million and 100% of SoundExchange's property rights" was due by the Glover team on or before July 6th.

Glbadnote, which was founded by Daniel Glbad in 2007 and is represented in New York, is represented by Loeb & Loeb on this subject.