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Judge Dismisses Tame Impala ‘Unpaid Royalties’ Charges

INDIO, CA - APRIL 17: Musician Kevin Parker of Tame Impala performs onstage during day 1 of the 2015 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival (Weekend 2) at The Empire Polo Club on April 17, 2015 in Indio, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella)

Tame Impala released the stellar Currents this summer, but the band’s Kevin Parker was also embroiled in a bit of legal red tape concerning royalties concerning the alleged matter that they were owed roughly $1 million in overseas royalties.

“To be honest, I haven’t had a big part in all of this,” Parker told SPIN when the issue was raised earlier this summer. “It’s been mostly lawyers, label execs — I’ve been way on the outside. I still don’t really even understand fully the details. My manager told me that some s—t was going down, that we haven’t been paid for these royalties, blah blah blah, and I was like, ‘Oh, that sucks.'”

He continued:

I’ve always felt like you’re in that business where you expect to get ripped off anyway. It’s just that classic story of the rock diva getting ripped off — it just seems fitting. I’m just letting the suits do their thing. The one thing I do understand is that it’s an extremely drawn-out process. I’ll put it this way: It’s been bubbling under the surface for a lot longer than you think.

Now however, Fader reports that a New York Southern District judge has dismissed the royalty charges.

“I’m pleased that the misunderstanding about the U.S. statutory rate for calculation of mechanical royalties has been resolved,” said Steve Pavlovic, founder of Modular Records and the true center of the entire Tame Impala royalties legal mess, sued by BMG for “not only withholding the substantial royalty payments but ignoring legal advice to cease and desist selling operations with regard to Tame Impala’s recordings in the lead-up to finally being served with papers filed with the New York Southern District Court.”

“I’m deeply sorry for any upset cause to Tame Impala,” Pavlovic added. “I also regret the heavy handed press coverage of this aspect of Modular’s affairs which was completely inaccurate and out of hand. I hope that with Universal and Modular’s respective obligations to BMG on behalf of Tame Impala now resolved that a line can finally be drawn under this unfortunate chapter.”