Sony sued over digitial royalties.

[RedjackRyan]

Two rock bands are suing Sony Music and seeking class action, claiming the company short-changed artists out of millions of dollars in digital royalties.

Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers Band filed a lawsuit in New York last week, claiming that Sony continues charging distribution fees for downloaded songs. The bands claim that they deserve greater royalties for digital downloads because downloads should be considered licensing, not distribution.


http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/187002223

[John L]

But Downloads are, by definition, distribution. Although not nearly as expensive as distribution of physical copies, packaging and delivering audio files to the various online delivery mechanisms and maintaining them afterwards doesn't magically happen once the song is licensed to them.

I'd hope for some sort of middle ground...the distribution of electronic formats IS obviously much less expensive, so as new contracts are written, electronic distribution should either be free (Cost of Goods Sold to the label) or at worst a much reduced rate, like a fraction of a percent.