Warner Music settles its big termination rights dispute with Dwight Yoakam

completemusicupdate.com:

A lawsuit against Warner Music testing the rights of artists in the US to reclaim the copyrights in their recordings after 35 years has been settled.

Terms of that settlement are, needless to say, confidential. Which is no fun at all.Country artist Dwight Yoakam sued the major a year ago claiming that it had refused to recognise the termination notices he had filed as part of his bid to reclaim ownership of the rights in recordings he released with the record company back in the 1980s.In his lawsuit, Yoakam said that he had filed termination notices with Warner and its Rhino division in 2019.

But “instead of acknowledging the validity the termination notices, Rhino instead proposed new deal terms”. Following a bit of back and forth between the major and the musician, “defendants failed to acknowledge Mr Yoakam’s termination rights effected through the termination notices, thus leaving him in a state of perpetual limbo”.To add some insult to the injury, Warner had removed some of his earliest tracks from the streaming services.

This, the lawsuit argued, was because the major recognised that – with Yoakam having filed his termination notices – it could be sued for copyright infringement by still distributing his recordings.However, because the label hadn’t actually confirmed it no longer controlled the rights in those tracks within the US, Yoakam couldn’t make other arrangements to get that music streaming.