S Poddar
Limp Bizkit is suing Universal Music for $200 million, accusing the music giant of owing them royalties on their efforts that ran into millions of copies sold and millions more streaming into the music platforms. Billboard reported that the case was filed on October 8, 2024, in the Los Angeles federal court. The remaining members of the band, including Fred Durst, are suing Universal, saying that it is using a fraudulent scheme to withhold royalties. It was allegedly planned to stiff artists like Limp Bizkit, and possibly hundreds of others, denying earnings while profit went directly to Universal.
The complaint alleges that Universal Music Group had erected a “byzantine scheme” to conceal royalties and ensure artists didn’t collect their money. Limp Bizkit sold millions of albums during the height of their popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was only until August of this year that they were told they received no royalties at all. The late payment, even as the band remains popular, raises serious questions about accounting at UMG, according to Durst’s attorneys.
“Despite this tremendous ‘comeback,’ the band had still not been paid a single cent by UMG in any royalties until taking action against UMG, leading one to ask how on earth that could possibly be true,” Durst’s legal team stated in court documents. The lawyers are particularly incensed by the public perception of UMG as the company that invests in and protects its artists. What’s more disturbing, they said, is “appalling and unsettling.”
Durst reports that Universal had been telling him for years that the statements were not being issued because the band’s account had not yet been recouped. Recoupment is an industry term referring to the practice of a record label withholding royalties until the costs of producing and marketing an album are recovered. But Durst’s people got suspicious and began snooping around, finding that the Limp Bizkit account had over $1 million in it. They say UMG never told the band about this money.
The group says withholding royalty statements between 1997 and 2004 was a pattern and design. It was during this period that the group released some of its greatest works, Significant Other and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, both of which sold by the truckload in stores around the world. Since all these copies were sold years ago, the lawsuit states, they should have long since paid royalties; however, UMG continued to hold back such payments.
The Durst camp hits back that it’s “highly suspect” Limp Bizkit’s studio albums were unrecouped across two decades of record-setting success. The lawsuit points out the first three Limp Bizkit albums sold millions in the early 2000s, and with such heady sales in such a short period of time, recording and production costs ought to have been earned back pretty quickly, making UMG have had to pay royalties for many years.
To this, the Limp Bizkit claims that Universal indulges in fraudulent accounting. According to them, the label actually manipulated the expenses of the band so that they would not become royalty. They cite a $199,676 charge allegedly taken out of their account which their lawyers claimed had “appeared out of thin air” so that there could be maintained the illusion of an unrecouped account and deny the earnings to the band.
Universal Music has stuck with its stance, stating the group had accrued $43 million in recoupable advances over time, which is why the royalties took so long. According to the label, more money could not roll into the band’s account until the advances were recouped first. The Limp Bizkit camp remains unconvinced, saying Universal did make the funds good by disbursing $1.03 million to the band and $2.3 million to Durst’s own Flawless Records, but maintains such damages are woefully short of what is owed.
The filing also seeks cancellation of the contract between Limp Bizkit and the record label, claiming that tens of millions of dollars are owed to the band by UMG. In successful judgment, this would take the copyrights in Limp Bizkit’s recordings out of the label’s hands and into those of the artists, giving them greater control over their music and future earnings. The filing also alleges damages for copyright infringement based on Universal’s profiting handsomely off sales of Limp Bizkit albums without paying the band fairly for those sales.
Limp Bizkit wraps up their 2024 North American ‘Loserville’ tour in August. The group played one of the final dates, Ridgefield, Washington, where they finally aired ‘Clunk,’ a song they hadn’t been able to perform live since its release over 14 years ago. If the lawsuit filed by UMG against Rick Rubin and Limp Bizkit prevails, however, all of these recent accolades on stage might be forgotten because of all of the time spent talking about them off stage. Universal has filed no further response to the lawsuit, so the case should be unfolding in the next several months.
