Lawsuit Filed Over Missing Tame Impala Royalties

Photo by Pooneh Ghana

Tame Impala‘s previous releases—including 2010′s Innerspeaker, 2012′s Lonerism—were put out by Modular, an Australian record label. Now, Modular and the label’s founder, Steve “Pav” Pavlovic, are being sued for withholding the band’s royalties, as Billboard reports. BMG, the rights management organization, has filed a suit against Pavlovic, Modular, Universal Music Group, and Universal Music Australia.

The suit claims that in March 2014, Modular obtained a license from BMG that allowed them to distribute Tame Impala’s releases. Subsequently, Modular was to pay royalties to BMG every quarter. However, BMG alleges that Modular failed to make the payments, and is seeking damages of at least $450,000. 

In response, Universal Music Australia claims that it and Modular were never in communication with BMG over licensing Tame Impala’s music—and that a separate company, founded by Pavlovic, is responsible. “Mr Pavlovic, who is no longer employed by Modular Recordings, has confirmed that this matter has nothing to do with Universal Music Australia or Modular Recordings in Australia,” they wrote in a statement, as Billboard points out. “Universal Music Australia and Modular Recordings are confident that the claim against them is baseless and will be withdrawn or dismissed by the Court.”

Last month, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker participated in a Reddit AMA, in which claimed he’d never received royalties for his music sold outside of Australia. “You want to know a story?” he wrote. “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.”

Watch the band perform “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” for Pitchfork.tv:

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