Sony Music Entertainment is one step closer to facing a full trial over the ownership of music recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The music company that distributes the recordings of the legendary Jimi Hendrix-led band has lost an appeal in front of a UK court, in which it sought to throw out a lawsuit brought by the estates of Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, the other two members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Hendrix, Mitchell, and Redding formed The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966, with Mitchell on drums and Redding on bass guitar. The band broke up in 1969, one year before Hendrix died of an accidental drug overdose. Redding died in 2003 and Mitchell died in 2008.
Mitchell and Redding’s estates argue they own a share of the three albums released by the Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland. Most of the music associated with Jimi Hendrix today comes from these three albums, including the band’s classic cover of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower.
Hendrix, Mitchell, and Redding reportedly made an agreement in 1966 – the year the band was formed – that gave the band’s then-managers, Michael Jeffery and Chas Chandler, certain rights to the sound recordings.
Sony cited a 1973 agreement in which Mitchell and Redding agreed never to sue Hendrix’s estate or record companies distributing the music. Redding received a $100,000 payment, and Mitchell received $247,500 in exchange for dropping the lawsuits they had filed at the time over the rights to the band’s music, according to Reuters.
However, the case hinges on how far those rights extend – specifically, whether they covered future technological changes, such as streaming.
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales upheld on Thursday (February 6) an earlier decision by the High Court that there is sufficient doubt about the proper ownership of the rights to the Jimi Hendrix Experience to warrant a full trial, according to a report from the Global Legal Group.
“Noel and Mitch first issued their complaint in November 2021 and after the latest delaying tactic of Sony to deny them justice the case now moves to a full trial scheduled for December 2025, over four years later,” said Edward Adams, a director for the Mitchell and Redding heirs.
“We retain our faith in the justice system that they and their licensors, Experience Hendrix LLC, will be finally held fully to account at that time.”
Sony Music licenses Jimi Hendrix Experience recordings from Experience Hendrix, a company owned by Jimi Hendrix’s heirs.
In 2021, Mitchell and Redding’s heirs asserted that they own a share of the recording rights and are owed millions in royalties, according to Billboard.
Sony and Experience Hendrix responded by filing a lawsuit against the heirs in a federal court in New York. The Mitchell and Redding estates filed their own lawsuits in the UK, and in 2023, the judge in the New York case ruled that the UK case could take precedence.
In that case before the High Court in London, Sony sought a summary judgment tossing out the Mitchell and Redding heirs’ claims. The judge rejected that motion, triggering Sony’s appeal.
In its appeal, Sony argued that under UK copyright law, the original “arrangements” that Mitchell and Redding made are still in effect. The company also argued that, under UK law, any claims made on the assets of a partnership have to be made within six years of that partnership’s dissolution, in this case, no later than 1975.
The Court of Appeal rejected those arguments, saying that Sony’s interpretation that recording rights transfer to new technologies automatically would “eviscerate” performers’ rights under UK copyright law.
It also rejected Sony’s argument that it’s too late to litigate the partnership’s assets because the case is about copyright infringement, and not the band’s assets.
While the trial is scheduled to commence in December, Billboard notes that Sony may choose to appeal the latest court ruling to the UK’s Supreme Court.
MBW has reached out to Sony Music for comment.Music Business Worldwide
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