Alleging that the company refused to pay out multiple bonus payments tied to the original acquisition of his music rights from back in 2020, on Friday (8.30,) along with his management company Stiletto Entertainment, Barry Manilow filed a $1,500,00.00 lawsuit against Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
According to filing in federal court in California, Hipgnosis originally paid $7,500,000.00 for the artist royalty rights to the masters from Manilow’s catalog, including hits such as “Looks Like We Made It,” “Mandy,” “I Write The Songs,” and many more. As part of that initial deal, the superstar singer/songwriter and his manager alleged, Hipgnosis agreed to pay two additional $750,000 bonus payments if the catalog met certain revenue growth figures each year. While the royalty revenue met that threshold each year, Hipgnosis hasn’t paid, claimed the plaintiffs.
“It is unclear if Defendant is just willfully violating the MCAA or if alternately it lacks the resources to make good on its contractual commitments,” stated the suit.
The latest lawsuit comes weeks after Hipgnosis first sued Manilow over the bonus clause early-August with a representative for Hipgnosis telling Billboard that the suit was a “routine commercial matter concerning the interpretation of certain clauses in a contract regarding bonus payments, which the court is ideally placed to address.”
Formerly helmed by music manager Merck Mercuriadis, Hipgnosis dominated headlines in recent years spending billions acquiring catalogs from the likes of Justin Bieber, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, and many others. Over the past year, however, shareholders pushed back over several issues and the Hipnosis Songs Fund sold to investment giant Blackstone subsequent to which Mercuriadis exited the company in July.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Harrywad