Music producer Sez has accused Sony Music of not paying his share, after the music label sold his songs to other production companies, who eventually ended up using his songs.
The Delhi-born music producer took to Facebook to complain about how he was not getting “paid for my work on this track despite having a contract and my publishing split being agreed and assigned.”
Sez also accused the label of not even “informing” him that they have sold his song, Mere Gully Mein to upcoming film, Gully Boy. “I wasn’t even aware of the fact that the song was going to be used in the movie until a little while ago, and when I got to know about it, I thought the original song will be used,” he wrote on Facebook.
His spokesperson, co-founder of Azaadi Records, Mo Joshi, who also handles Sez, claims that Sony has failed to pay Sez his royalties on multiple occasions. “They have failed to pay him for high profile sync/licensing deals with Zee Music, Netflix, Redbull plus a host of TV shows which all have been licensing Sez’s composition. Jungli Sher, another track by Divine (which was also produced by Sez), was licensed to Sacred Games. Sez found out while watching the trailer for the show that they used his music. They have yet to pay his share of that deal, too,” he says.
“Sez has a percentage of the publishing for the track. When it is licensed out the original publisher (administrator for the music - ie Sony) have to pay out to other rights holders. For example, if Sez owns 30%, Sony 50% and other artist 20%. When Sony licenses the track out for say 100 rupees, they have to, by law, pay Sez 30 rupees as his share,” Mo says adding that the rapper doesn’t have a problem with the film’s producers and adds that they have been helpful in getting Sez credits for other tracks used in the film.
{{/usCountry}}“Sez has a percentage of the publishing for the track. When it is licensed out the original publisher (administrator for the music - ie Sony) have to pay out to other rights holders. For example, if Sez owns 30%, Sony 50% and other artist 20%. When Sony licenses the track out for say 100 rupees, they have to, by law, pay Sez 30 rupees as his share,” Mo says adding that the rapper doesn’t have a problem with the film’s producers and adds that they have been helpful in getting Sez credits for other tracks used in the film.
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“My understanding is that Excel has packaged the soundtrack, via Ankur Tewari, and sold it to Zee. Excel has been very helpful in sorting this all out,” he adds.
Sony Music wasn’t available for a comment after we tried reaching out to their representatives for the same.
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