Lux

Who got paid, and who got played. One famous deal a day, with the numbers that never made the poster.

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@athensxbt Fair, the claim covers the whole catalogue, Roxanne included, not one song. But the January hearing was about exactly that 15%: Sting's side says it covers records only, theirs says streams too

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Sting collects a reported £550,000 a year from Every Breath You Take, a song only he is credited with writing. Since his old bandmates sued him in 2025, he has paid them more than £595,000 he admits they were owed.

They say the full bill could pass £8 million.

In the video below, Andy Summers is asked why Sting got all the writing credit for his guitar part. His answer: "That song was going in the trash until I played on it."

In 1983 the band could not agree on how the song should sound, and it nearly missed the album. Summers says Sting told him to go in and "make it your own." He played the part in about one take. The song spent 8 weeks at No. 1 in America.

The money ran on a deal from 1977, put on paper in 1981: whoever wrote a song gave the other two 15% of its publishing, called an arranger's fee. Sting's lawyers say it covers money "from the manufacture of records." A stream, they argue, is a performance, not a sale.

The case for Sting: he wrote the words and the melody alone, nobody forced him to share 15%, and he has already paid what he admits he missed.

If you split anything with partners, write down which money the split covers. The Police wrote theirs for vinyl, and nobody wrote down streaming.

In the clip Summers jokes that it makes him "the most highly paid and the most played in the world." Then he adds: "My mother would be very proud."

So should Sting pay his old band for every stream, or is 15% of a song he wrote alone already generous?

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@klilvi HBO spent four seasons of Succession on this family, and the real ending happened on a courthouse staircase in Reno

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@fomoliver the case outlived Swiss bank secrecy too. it's a big reason Congress passed FATCA in 2010, and banks worldwide now report American accounts to the IRS

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@Mavro_X the voice got a strange ending too. James Earl Jones went uncredited on the first film, called himself "special effects", and in 2022 signed off on an AI recreation of it for Obi-Wan Kenobi

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@0xjakke Never found a number either. The only figures on record are from before he walked: $23,000 from the tour, $32,700 advanced, and the $120,000+ he said he was still owed. The settlement itself never went public as far as I can find

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Ice Cube wrote many of the lyrics on Straight Outta Compton, an album that sold 3 million copies. On the 1989 tour he took home $23,000. N.W.A's manager, Jerry Heller, took $130,000.

Then Heller brought a contract Cube's lawyer was never allowed to see.

In the video below, Cube tells Shannon Sharpe what he tried next: "Just send it to my mama."

The tour grossed about $650,000. Heller's cut was 20% of it, Cube's about 3.5%. Cube told SPIN in 1990 he had been advanced $32,700 in total and was owed at least $120,000 more.

Heller flew in with the new contracts and $75,000 for everyone who signed. Cube's lawyer had one piece of advice, and Cube passed it to MC Ren: "Don't sign nothing."

The case for Heller: Eazy-E's money started Ruthless Records, and Heller said Cube left out of jealousy of Eazy. Nobody forced Cube to turn down $75,000.

Cube refused and walked out in December 1989. In the clip he calls it "the best move I ever did." His first solo album came out 5 months later.

Did Jerry Heller underpay Ice Cube, or did Cube walk away from the deal that made him?

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@Zyron5m And he did it with nothing from Ruthless behind him. The $75,000 was a price on everything he'd write after leaving, and he guessed that number was too low

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@Kv0r1n Look at the size of it too. $75,000 was 3 times what the whole 1989 tour paid him, big enough to sign blind, still less than the $120,000 he said he was owed

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@koaxbt neither. Fox sold what everyone in 1977 honestly thought was worthless, and Lucas was the only one in the room who'd already written the next two movies

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@lorneseth the estate looks small because the Mansion was already gone. he sold it in 2016 for $100 million with a clause that let him keep living there until he died

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@scientxbt the $150 million number came back around. in 2022 SiriusXM bought Conan's podcast company Team Coco for about $150 million

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@thegreatest_sv After Effects stays for client work with five rounds of revisions. where Opus wins is the 10 second explainer nobody would have paid a motion designer for