Fred Durst sues UMG for $200 million arguing that Limp Bizkit was never paid royalties

Yesterday Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit, filed a $200 million lawsuit against Universal Music Group in a federal court located in Los Angeles, California. In his lawsuit, Durst alleges that UMG used dishonest and “fraudulent” accounting techniques to purposefully deny him and his bandmates millions in unpaid royalties. Durst goes on to say that because of these practices, artists who were signed to his previous Interscope/Geffen/A&M imprint label, Flawless Records, have also been shorted on royalties. Hard rockers Puddle of Mudd, who achieved three multi-platinum hits with their 2001 album “Come Clean,” as well as Big Dumb Face, a side project of guitarist Wes Borland, The Revolution Smile, Kenna, Sinisstar, and a number of other bands, signed deals with that label venture.

Durst and the band are attempting to collect royalties on about 45 million copies of the albums they created and distributed during their peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to Billboard. The group’s music continues to do well on digital service providers as well, because of the recent resurgence of interest in the band and nu metal. According to the lawsuit, Limp Bizkit‘s catalogue is predicted to receive 793 million streams just in 2024. The case claims that Limp Bizkit signed a traditional record deal at the time, wherein an artist receives a payment in advance of the writing and recording process. The label then has the right to recover that initial investment before paying the artist any future royalties.

Record companies are allowed to claim marketing, music video expenditures, and other expenses in addition to advances, as was customary for such agreements at the time. They do this to recover these costs before the artist is paid on the backend. According to Durst, UMG informed the group that they had paid $43 million in advances and related expenses related to Limp Bizkit‘s musical career. He asserted that he had “never received any royalties from UMG” as a result. Additionally, Durst claims that UMG told him that “because his account was still so far from recoupment,” they had not been paying him royalties on his recorded works or keeping him updated on payment. 

However, Durst contests that, claiming that Flip Records, an independent label that signed Limp Bizkit, Staind, Cold, and others, had been discovered to have participated in a profit-sharing arrangement with UMG. Jordan Schur, who later became president of Geffen Records, started Flip Records. The band’s 1997 debut album, “Three Dollar Bill, Y’all,” as well as their later hit albums, 1999’s seven-time multi-platinum “Significant Other” and 2000’s “Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water,” helped launch Limp Bizkit‘s career. At first, that label partnered with Interscope Records. According to Durst, he just hired new counsel, who started looking into the nonpayment of royalties in April. First, it was found that UMG failed to notify him or the band of a $1.03 million payment that was due to the band. According to him, the business attributed the failure to notify royalties to a technological glitch. According to him, UMG has released the previously indicated $1.03 million to the band and $2.3 million to his Flawless Records label since his representatives started looking into the situation. But to benefit themselves, he and his agents also maintain that UMG has been using “fraudulent accounting practices” to avoid paying royalties to many musicians, including himself and his bandmates.

UMG’s creation of such a system, while holding itself out as a company that prides itself on investing in and protecting its artists, makes plaintiffs’ discovery of UMG’s scheme all the more appalling and unsettling Fred Durst

The complaint also raises the possibility that “hundreds” of other musicians who were signed to the label over the years were duped by this purported scheme. In addition to the aforementioned enormous amount of money in damages, Durst claims that UMG never intended to pay any royalties to him and his affiliated bands. In order to give the band ownership of the records Limp Bizkit recorded under the UMG label as well as the albums Durst released for other artists under his Flawless Records banner, he has also set out to nullify Limp Bizkit‘s contract with the label. If that occurs, the lawsuit may also attempt to obtain further copyright damages against UMG.

Given the vast amounts of money collected by UMG in relation to sales of Limp Bizkit’s and Flawless Records’ albums over the years … UMG is liable to plaintiffs for tens of millions of dollars in copyright infringement, if not more. Indeed, Plaintiffs allege that the amounts owed to them by UMG following the rescission of these agreements will easily surpass $200 million. Fred Durst