The falling out between Four Tet and Domino Recordings has been messy so far. The dispute is primarily about Four Tet disputing streaming royalties from three albums originally released in 2001 – when online streaming was still in its infancy and not taken seriously by record labels.

A few weeks ago, Domino Recordings took the albums off streaming platforms. They’ve refused to explain why – Four Tet believes it was a tactic to pressure him into dropping his legal action, whereas I’m told by a source Domino did it following “legal advice”. Exactly why might come out in a trial, due early next year.

Today, a pre-trial hearing took place and Music Week have covered it in some detail. As legal proceedings are live, I won’t be giving my opinion on matters – although I’ll be more than happy to wax lyrical once the case concludes. But there’s one detail at the end of the report which I found quite noteworthy.

And that’s the information that this trial could be getting moved to the High Court – something which Four Tet’s solicitor says could prevent him from pursuing the case any further. Things get very expensive when going up in the court system. So it’s quite possible this case will get dropped – and I’m unsure exactly what will happen if it does.

This one is likely to twist and turn some more before its conclusion…


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By The Editor

Editor-in-chief at Amateur’s House.