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Appeals court dismisses EMI’s claim over Pink Floyd ruling
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 15 December 2010
The Court Of Appeal yesterday upheld a High Court ruling against EMI with regards the way the digital catalogue of the most Pink of all the Floyds is sold.
As previously reported, this particular dispute between Pink Floyd and EMI centred on the sale of the band’s albums on a track-by-track basis on digital services like iTunes. Although a number of artists have complained about the tendency of consumers in the digital age to pick and mix tracks rather than buy and listen to full albums, the very album-centric Pink Floyd went legal over the issue, claiming that their 1967 contract with EMI prohibited the record company from selling their music in this way.
The dispute focused on one particular clause in that contract which referred to EMI not selling any Pink Floyd records as ‘single records’ without the band’s permission. EMI’s legal team somewhat optimistically argued that the use of the word “records” in that clause only referred to physical records – ie vinyl or CDs – and not digital albums or singles. The Floyd’s lawyers argued that that was clearly not in the spirit of the original agreement, and that the clause referred to the sale of all of the band’s recordings, not just those on physical products.
Back in March a High Court judge sided with Pink Floyd at a private hearing. EMI sought to appeal that judgment, but the Court Of Appeal yesterday dismissed their case meaning the earlier ruling still stands.
I’m not sure what that means regarding the sale of Pink Floyd’s music digitally, their albums are still available on a track-by-track basis on iTunes this morning. Though the single track issue is one part of a wider royalties dispute between the band and the record company, so there may be other things at play that could further delay the actual impact of this ruling.
