All articles tagged with #royalties
Trump's 2025 financial disclosure shows income topping $2.2B and assets near $2.4B, driven largely by cryptocurrency ventures (World Liberty Financial, Celebration Coins) and token sales, plus royalties and stablecoin activity, along with golf/resort earnings; officials say there are no conflicts of interest.
Trump’s 2025 annual financial disclosure reveals hundreds of millions in crypto income from World Liberty Financial, major revenue from his golf and club properties, sizable stock purchases in Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon, and a range of royalty and licensing income, along with Melania Trump’s licensing earnings and other assets.
New disclosures show several Supreme Court justices earned substantial outside income from books and teaching, with Ketanji Brown Jackson reporting more than $1.1 million in royalties from her memoir and Amy Coney Barrett about $849,000 plus teaching, Neil Gorsuch around $300,000 in royalties and teaching, and Sonia Sotomayor about $89,000 in royalties; other justices (Thomas, Kavanaugh, Roberts) reported smaller teaching sums, while Alito’s filing was extended and remains pending.
TIDAL unveiled an AI policy that will automatically tag fully AI-generated tracks in its app and block royalties for those releases, while allowing AI-created music that meets its standards. The policy also forbids AI works that impersonate artists or involve fraud and requires distributors to flag AI content before it reaches the platform; a consumer AI badge will appear on qualifying tracks and the tagging will expand as detection improves. The demonetization takes effect mid-July, following similar actions by Deezer, Qobuz, Apple Music and Spotify to curb AI-driven fraud and ensure royalties go to original human-created works.
Sexyy Red's label has addressed circulating rumors of a financial dispute with Tay Keith, clarifying the situation and noting that the matter was discussed prior to his passing while choosing not to disclose private financial details.
Apple Music could be getting a free, ad-supported tier, hints of which appeared in code found in an Android beta. The move would represent a shift from its subscription-only model, potentially as a lower-cost or free option, but insiders like Apple Music VP Oliver Schusser have argued a free tier would hurt artists. The Android discovery leaves uncertainty about timing; any changes would likely roll out to iOS and Android if pursued. The shift could help Apple Music gain listeners amid Spotify’s larger market share, though its viability remains debated and not confirmed.
Shedeur Sanders received $17.7 million from the NFL Players Association through his SS2 Legendary LLC in 2025–26, a one-year record for player royalties tied to group licensing on jerseys, trading cards, video games and other collectibles. The largest payment was $9,241,318 in May 2025, with another $2,086,563 in January 2026, far exceeding his rookie contract’s four-year value of about $4.65 million and even the prior one-year record of $9.5 million. The pay likely reflects pre‑negotiated trading-card guarantees, and Sanders’ jersey-number change from 12 to 2 could shift royalties for next season.
The article explains that HEVC/H.265 relies on patent licenses managed by pools like Access HEVC Advance and Velos, with rising royalties and multi-year terms pressuring OEMs. As a result, several vendors (e.g., Dell, HP, Synology) have disabled hardware HEVC support to avoid licensing costs and litigation risk, forcing users to rely on software decoding or pay for extensions. Nokia and other patent holders have pursued lawsuits, contributing to the complexity and risk around HEVC. AV1, a royalty-free open alternative developed by AOMedia, is gaining traction but faces compatibility and hardware hurdles, offering a potential path forward for open video codecs.
Australia’s Gina Rinehart must pay past and future royalties to the Wright family over the Hope Downs iron ore project, while keeping the mining rights; the 13-year dispute also involved claims by Rinehart’s children and the Rhodes family, with mixed outcomes.
Lebohang Morake, the Grammy-winning composer who performed the opening Circle of Life chant in The Lion King, is suing comedian Learnmore Jonasi for allegedly mistranslating the chant on a podcast and in stand-up. Morake seeks more than $20 million in damages plus $7 million in punitive damages, arguing the misrepresentation harms his reputation and Disney royalties by interfering with business relationships and income.
Chance the Rapper won a five-year legal battle against former manager Pat Corcoran, with a Cook County jury awarding Bennett $35—a symbolic verdict after finding Corcoran owed no substantial royalties or commissions; the case centered on informal, unwritten deals. The article also covers Bruce Springsteen headlining a No Kings rally in Minnesota, a seven-figure trademark dispute between The Twigs and FKA twigs, and Moby’s criticism of The Kinks’ Lola, including responses from the band’s members.
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, filed a federal lawsuit against SeaWorld alleging breach of contract and unpaid royalties tied to Sesame Street–themed parks and branding, including issues related to the Sesame Place park in Langhorne, Pa., the San Diego attraction closure, and a planned third park. The suit accuses SeaWorld of stopping royalty payments, distributing unapproved marketing materials, and seeks termination of the license plus damages and attorneys’ fees.
Spotify announced it paid more than $11 billion in royalties in 2025, about 30% of the recording industry’s revenue, but the money goes to rightsholders (labels, distributors, publishers) rather than directly to artists; roughly half of the royalties went to independent artists and labels, while payouts for indie acts can vary widely and artists with fewer than 1,000 streams receive no payout; 12,500+ artists earned over $100k in royalties in 2024, with 2025 figures due in March; per-stream payments depend on the pool size and deals, and Spotify is promising new anti-fraud measures and greater human curation to address criticism.
Spotify raised Premium to $13/month from $12, its third price increase in 2.5 years, with Student, Duo, and Family plans also rising (Basic stays at $11). The move follows its 2024 pricing and is framed as reflecting value and funding product features and royalties; Spotify says it paid $10 billion in royalties in 2024 and has seen growth in subscribers and users, though questions about musician earnings and platform economics persist.
The Police royalties case has moved to London’s High Court, with Sting admitting he has paid Summers and Copeland about $800,000 (and Summers/Copeland noting a recent $870,000 payment) toward what they say is an underpayment from download and streaming revenue. Summers and Copeland contend there was an oral agreement later formalized to share royalties, and assert they’re owed more than $2 million; Sting’s side argues streaming is a public-performance issue and royalties should be limited to sales of records. The dispute centers on how the band’s late-1990s/2010s contracts should be interpreted in the streaming era. None of the members attended today’s preliminary hearing as the case progresses.