The Week In Music Publishing 3.2.12

(UPDATED) '80s band Toto has filed a suit in U.S. District Court against Sony Music for failing to pay the entitled 50% of net receipts from licensing the band's music to third parties selling downloads of the band's music.

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• Adam Lambert's legal issues surrounding the music publishing company Colwel Platinum Entertainment, which claimed he signed into a publishing deal with them before finding success on American Idol, have been resolved after the publishing company dropped the suit.
• Popular Latina music star Graciela Beltran has filed a lawsuit against EMI Music, Inc. over royalty payouts and is hoping to bring a class action suit – though that is still in the works.
• Reports suggest that Whitney Houston amassed such massive debt that in order for her estate to move out of the red, the late singer's albums would need to sell another 5 million units.
• Universal Music Publishing has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Emile Haynie – collaborator and songwriter for Eminem, Kanye West and Lana Dey Rey.
• British punk pioneers The Sex Pistols have announced a deal with Universal Music Catalog UK, which includes the re-release of their quintessential record Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.
• Canadian-based music publishing company Ole has announced a worldwide publishing deal with American Idol (US) finalist Haley Reinhart.
• Edgar Berger, the international head of Sony Music, surprisingly stated in an interview for German newspaper Die Welt that he believes the internet has been a boon for the music industry. He was not as kind towards German performance rights organization GEMA for being too restrictive with licensing and asking for an unreasonable YouTube royalty rates.
• The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance has brought an anti-trust lawsuit against TV broadcasters for persuading composers to cede publishing rights as a precondition for contracts to write music for television.
• The Music Copyright Society Of Kenya is once again under fire after they continue to pay out royalties based on rates that are below the legal threshold.
• Rumors abound that streaming music service MOG may be up for sale after recent word of financial troubles.
• Miami-based streaming music service Senzari has just launched internationally rolling out into Spain with MTV Spain strategic partnership in tow.
• ROTANA Records, the recording branch of ROTANA, the largest entertainment company in the pan-arabic world has signed a publishing deal with ROBA.
• London-based exec Kim Frankiewicz has left Universal Music Publishing after 15 years to join Imagem Music, the pop music publishing arm of Imagem.

Courtesy of Songtrust – the easiest way for songwriters and bands to collect publishing royalties.