Music producer Mr. Probz demanding €10 mil from Sony in royalties conflict

Music producer Dennis Stehr, better known as Mr. Probz, sued the Dutch branch of record company Sony. He is claiming at least 10 million euros from the company and demands that Sony Music annuls all of his contracts, Het Financieele Dagblad reports.

“Sony deliberately cheated Denis,” Pim Keulen, royalty expert at Right4Music who is assisting Stehr, said to the newspaper. “The label skims revenue out of sight of the artist.”

In September 2020, Stehr already won a lawsuit against Sony Music. The court in Amsterdam ruled that Sony Music failed to fulfill its obligations by not paying royalties correctly, transparently, and on time. The verdict gave Stehr’s company Left Lane back the rights to his hits Waves and its remix by DJ Robin Schulz. The court also ordered Sony to show precisely how much royalties Stehr is entitled to and to let Stehr’s accountants - from Grant Thornton - assess all financial information about this.

Based on the Grant Thornton investigation, Stehr and his advisers concluded that Sony Music is unable to pay royalties “reliably and verifiably” according to the method agreed upon by the artist and music label. In practice, Sony has been illegally skimming Stehr’s income for years, the artist said. He, therefore, wants a court to say that he can annul his contracts with the music label and order Sony to repay the royalties it skimmed - at least 10 million euros, according to Stehr.

“I am very principled about it,” Stehr said to FD. “I want the agreements to be fulfilled. Sony is a big company, so I assumed the payment would be good. Nothing turned out to be less true. If I had known this at the time, I would never have signed the contracts, or not in this form.”

The lawsuit could have consequences for other artists who signed similar contracts with Sony. “That seems simple, but labels often use a very complicated method of payment,” Pim Keulen of Right4Music said to the newspaper. “We believe they must make that income much more transparent and pay artists their share.”
Sony Music told FD that it “strongly disputes” the allegations but would make no further comment.