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Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and Incubus have ended their legal standoff with a lucrative new deal that will pay the rock band an estimated $8 million in advances for its next album.
The deal struck Thursday also requires the group to deliver two additional albums and gives Sony an option for a fourth, with an estimated $2.5 million advance due for each, sources told the Los Angeles Times.
The company and the musicians "have amicably resolved their differences, and will continue with their highly successful relationship," Sony and the band said in a joint statement.
The band asked a judge in February for a release from a 1996 record contract, alleging they were underpaid. The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court cited California's so-called "seven-year statute," which states that most entertainers can't be tied to a company for more than seven years. But major record labels won a legal battle that allows them to collect damages from musicians who fail to deliver promised albums.
Sony responded with a countersuit, saying the band owed four albums and had gone to court as a negotiating ploy.
The group signed a seven-album deal with Sony-affiliated Immortal Records in 1996 and has sold more than 7 million albums. Sources estimated Incubus' recordings have netted Sony $35 million in profit, while the band had received only a little more than $4 million in advances, and no royalty payments.
Incubus recently replaced its bassist and founding member Dirk Lance and is scheduled to play the Lollapalooza Tour this summer. The band, whose hits from the multiplatinum album "Morning View" include "Nice to Know You" and "Wish You Were Here," is expected to release an album early next year.
Bill Evans
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