Four Tet Wins Royalties Dispute With Domino Records

Ownership and fairness has been a hotly debated topic within music in recent years. With the rise of streaming, the old rules of the industry no longer apply, creating huge grey areas around what it means to own music in the 21st century when you can no longer hold it in your hand.

Many artists have fallen victim to this ambiguity, but one notable case has attracted significant public attention was that of Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet last year. In 2001, he signed two albums to Domino Records which, at the time, was signed in a way that made sense - 18% for physical sales. However, despite the world moving away from physical and towards digital streaming, Domino continued to apply this historical royalty rate even 20 years later, leaving Kieran feeling rather cheated.

Therefore Kieran sought £70,000 in damages, and has been embroiled in a battle with the label until now.

This week Four Tet took to Instagram to announce that he has won his case, and will be receiving his 50% royalty on streaming and downloads.

In this post, he states that 'hopefully I've opened up a constructive dialogue and maybe prompted others to push for a fairer deal on historical contracts, written at a time when the music industry operated completely differently'.