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Pink Floyd win battle with EMI over single-song downloads

Judge rules label must sell full albums

Joe Bosso, Thu 11 Mar 2010, 7:20 pm GMT

Pink Floyd win battle with EMI over single-song downloads

"Money, it's a gas..." And Pink Floyd can afford a lot of it (© Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis)

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Pink Floyd have won their lawsuit over the matter of single-song downloads against EMI, which now puts an end to the digital sale of the group's individual tracks.

As reported by the BBC, under the terms of a 1999 contract that predated iTunes and other digital music retailers, the band mandated its songs could not be offered outside the context of their original albums. EMI argued that the agreement only referred to physical sales such as vinyl, cassette tapes and CDs. In the end, Britain's High Court sided with Floyd.

In his ruling, Judge Andrew Morritt stated that the contract's clause prohibiting the slicing and dicing of Pink Floyd albums protected "the artistic integrity of the albums."

We're guessing that Judge Morritt is a huge fan of A Saucerful Of Secrets and he simply can't fathom the idea of fans hearing Remember A Day without checking out the rest of the groovy disc.

Morrit ordered EMI to pay the band's legal fees (said to be $60,000) while the court determines an appropriate monetary payment of finds and damages.

Also to be decided is how much money Pink Floyd should receive in digital royalties, as the band's 1999 contract does not cover downloadable music. This could get even more interesting very shortly.

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User comments (2)

  • MrGawain

    Avatar for MrGawain

    24 weeks ago.

    Hmmm, let me do the Math...
    Floyd= long songs.
    Long songs= less songs on album (Animals is 5 songs long, not to mention the other albums with the musical segues that aren't songs).
    Usual cost of an album on iTunes: £7.99
    Usual cost of a song on iTunes: 79p
    5x 79p £3.95 (and that's if you want all of the songs).
    Obviously, this is all about artistic vision and not a financial argument. Whatsoever. Something tells me other prog bands are going to defend their 'artistic vision' as well. As they should!

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  • Calvinios

    Avatar for Calvinios

    25 weeks ago.

    giving the power back the people! it's a shame poorer, lesser known musicians don't the the financial backing to have a decent enough lawyer to get their rights back

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