Sting has paid his former bandmates in The Police over $800,000 (£595,000) in royalties since they filed a lawsuit in September 2025, experiences the BBC.
Legal professionals for The Police drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers revealed the fee was made after they sued Sting and his publishing firm final yr, claiming Sting owed them between $2m (£1.5m) and $10.75m (£8m) in unpaid royalties.
At a Wednesday listening to in London’s Excessive Court docket, the legal professionals stated the declare may rise even greater. In addition they stated the “historic underpayment” didn’t embrace curiosity.
None of The Police members have been in court docket, however Summers and Copeland’s authorized staff argued the language of agreements made in 1997 and 2016 ought to be reinterpreted to incorporate cash from downloads and streaming revenue.
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In response, Sting’s legal professionals argued that his former bandmates aren’t owed royalties from streaming as a result of that ought to be categorized as “public efficiency” as an alternative of a sale. In addition they stated the 2016 settlement solely pays royalties “from the manufacture of data.”
The listening to is anticipated to conclude on Thursday, January fifteenth, with a full trial to observe.
Whereas Copeland and Summers didn’t obtain writing credit on The Police’s hits, they beforehand stated Sting owed them “arranger’s charges” from the “digital exploitation” of the band’s again catalog.
In the meantime, Sting’s legal professionals have referred to as the lawsuit an “illegitimate try” to reinterpret the 2016 settlement, arguing that Sting had “considerably overpaid” Copeland and Summers based mostly on one interpretation of the unique phrases.
The dispute dates again to The Police’s formation in 1977, when Sting initially agreed to pay the pair “15 p.c of some royalties” from songs he wrote for the group. After being formalized in 1981, the settlement was revised in 1997 in response to Copeland and Summers claiming that that they had been underpaid “for a substantial interval.”
For context on the cash at stake, Sting reportedly earns £550,000, or roughly $740,000, in royalties every year on The Police’s traditional hit “Each Breath You Take” alone.