MELBOURNE, Australia (VIP NEWS) — Modular Recordings’ founder Steve Pavlovic is being sued by BMG over unpaid Tame Impala royalties worth around $450,000.
BMG has accused the Australian independent label, and its co-owner, Universal Music Australia, of withholding payments and ignoring a cease and desist notice requiring Modular to stop the sale of further records by the group.
According to a report in The Australian, the rights to Tame Impala’s songs are owned by BMG, having signed a publishing deal with the group’s songwriter Kevin Parker.
Mechanical license was granted to Modular Recordings by BMG for the sale of the songs, with a requirement of the deal being that royalties would have to paid within a 45-day time-frame each quarter.
The payments were allegedly never made, with Parker himself stating via a Reddit AMA: "Up until recently, from all of Tame Impala`s record sales outside of Australia I had received zero dollars. Someone high up spent the money before it got to me. I may never get that money."
Papers were filed with the New York Southern District Court early last month and the case will now be heard by county judge Edgardo Ramos, in New York.
