{"id":459167,"date":"2026-04-29T06:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/459167\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:07:10","slug":"jimi-hendrix-bandmates-heirs-lose-royalties-fight-against-sony-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/459167\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimi Hendrix Bandmates\u2019 Heirs Lose Royalties Fight Against Sony Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA London-based judge has rejected copyright claims from the heirs of two former bandmates of Jimi Hendrix<\/a>, ruling against their bid to secure royalties from the guitarist\u2019s catalog in a long-running dispute<\/a> with Sony Music and the Hendrix estate.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a 140-page ruling obtained by Rolling Stone, British High Court Judge Edwin Johnson found that Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist David Noel Redding and drummer John \u201cMitch\u201d Mitchell signed a recording agreement on Oct. 11, 1966, that forfeited their rights to future royalties. The agreement was between band members Hendrix, Redding, and Mitchell and two music producers, Michael Jeffery and Bryan \u201cChas\u201d Chandler.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI conclude that the first owners of the copyrights\u2026 were the producers,\u201d the judge wrote, finding that a critical clause of the agreement stated that the producers owned the rights to \u201cany sound recordings made hereunder.\u201d A subclause then said the rights covered \u201cthe copyright throughout the world in all sound recordings of performances of musical works by the artistes,\u201d the judge found.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is difficult to see how this could have been expressed more clearly,\u201d Judge Johnson wrote. \u201cThe producers were to have the copyright in sound recordings made pursuant to the terms of the recording agreement. This clearly included the recordings, which were all made pursuant to the terms of the recording agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judge repeatedly described the agreement as \u201cclear and unequivocal,\u201d adding that \u201cthere was no temporal or territorial limitation to this agreement\u201d and no language qualifying the grant of ownership. He further found that a \u201cseries of transactions\u201d after Hendrix\u2019s 1970 death made the Hendrix estate \u201cthe ultimate successor\u201d to the producers\u2019 rights under the recording agreement.<\/p>\n

\n\tJimi\u2019s younger sister, Janie Hendrix, the CEO of Experience Hendrix, cheered the ruling in a statement sent to Rolling Stone. \u201cJimi\u2019s music is more than a catalog \u2014 it\u2019s a living piece of our family\u2019s soul, filled with his spirit, his passion, and his truth,\u201d she says. \u201cThis decision means we can continue protecting that legacy with the love, care, and integrity it deserves, and ensure his voice is honored for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tAttempts to reach representatives for the estates of Redding and Mitchell were not immediately successful on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Rolling Stone previously reported, the legal dispute traces back to a 2021 letter that British attorney Lawrence Abramson sent to Sony, claiming that Mitchell\u2019s and Redding\u2019s estates were owed performance royalties for billions of streams. He wrote that the sales linked to the streams were \u201cestimated to be in the millions of pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tExperience Hendrix and Sony responded by filing a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, asking for \u201ca declaratory judgment of ownership and non-infringement.\u201d The heirs of Redding and Mitchell filed a competing lawsuit in London, and the New York litigation was put on hold, with the British courts given priority<\/a> to handle the legal battle.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/a>\u00a0was formed in 1966 and split in June 1969 when Redding quit. Mitchell continued playing with Hendrix off and on until Hendrix died in September 1970 at age 27. Redding died in May 2003, leaving his estate to his partner, Deborah McNaughton, whose sisters inherited the estate upon her death. Mitchell\u2019s daughter, Aysha, inherited his estate when he died in Nov. 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A London-based judge has rejected copyright claims from the heirs of two former bandmates of Jimi Hendrix, ruling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[20705,21209,18,117,19,17,103899,337],"class_list":["post-459167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-controversy","tag-courts-and-crime","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jimi-hendrix","tag-music"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116486501120889266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}