For those who’re unaware of the fact that Limp Bizkit has now been popularized with the widely heard singles of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and now they’ve come to a run-in with one of the biggest music companies in the world-University Music Group (UMG), with a heated fight on behalf of the former claiming an award of as much as $200 million in royalties, and recently, this was all over the news. Just so you know though, royalties refer to money earned by artists once their music is streamed, sold, or otherwise used. According to frontman Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit claims the company has not been paying the amounts owed to them. Sure enough, this battle could redefine the business dealings of artists with the record label, so let’s explore everything in detail and see what is really going on with this Limp Bizkit Universal Lawsuit.
So, Why Is Limp Bizkit Mad at Universal?
As per the details out there already, you see, Fred Durst and his band discovered a big problem: notwithstanding their enormous popularity, they weren’t seeing royalty checks. Sure enough, they claimed that their songs had been streamed millions of times on platforms such as Spotify, but Universal was not even giving them a dime. And then, according to the band, the whole accounting system of Universal, which notates how much money an artist should receive, has been developed in order to hide their earnings from them. Without a single doubt, Limp Bizkit has a reason to believe that this isn’t a coincidence. They are calling it fraud and have accused Universal of committing this act for years to amass money for itself, you know?
Down the line though, the discovery led to cannon-blast litigation. Limp Bizkit accused Universal of breach of contract, lying, and cheating them out of their royalties. Universal, on the other hand, has an entirely different story, and we’ll come to that later.
It’s A Common Thing You Know: Universal Fires Back Saying “It’s Not What It Looks Like!”
Sure enough, Universal outright denies every claim raised by Limp Bizkit. Like what though? Well, they’ve termed the entire suit as “fiction” and “a fallacy,” which means all claims from the band’s side are fictitious. In fact, Universal claims that the whole problem arose because of a misunderstanding. See, as per them, more than a year back, they tried to contact Limp Bizkit’s Business Manager for the right documentation to pay the dues, you know? However, the manager had the wrong information, saying that the rights were sold to someone else.
You see, Universal insists that they didn’t cheat anyone. They even added that more than $1 million in back royalties had already been paid to Limp Bizkit after clearing the confusion along these lines. Another $2.3 million was given to Fred Durst’s label, Flawless Records. But still, the band is not satisfied, which is why it is continuing with the lawsuit.
What Matters in the Limits of the Law?
Well, just so you know, apart from Limp Bizkit, this lawsuit refers to other artists as well. Sure enough, if the veracity of these allegations is indeed true, it simply means that Universal’s model has underpaid other artists as well. You know, more likely than ever, more artists would not long after come out and demand their dues. Limp Bizkit is giving $200 million, and even this is small-wanting: they want the rights to their own music.
A Peek Into the Legal Drama
You see, the back-and-forth has now gotten into heavy waters, and what’s that precisely? Well, Limp Bizkit filed their suit as of October 2024 then Universal quickly followed up by asking the court to throw out the suit. The argument being raised was that from whatever account the band presented, quite a number did not add up, before claiming that the issue that had been brought to the court had already been fixed with payment.