Blur drummer Dave Rowntree loses appeal to continue £200m royalties legal battle

Blur star David Rowntree has lost an appeal to continue a legal case over the distribution of £200m in music royalties.

The ruling brings to an end the musician's legal claim against Performing Right Society (PRS), which collects royalties and distributes them to songwriters and producers, on behalf of 160,000 songwriters.

He claimed PRS pays "black box" royalties, also known as unidentified royalties, to producers, but not to songwriters, and argued through his lawyers that the distribution scheme was "systematically and disproportionately biased".

The number of songwriter PRS members is "far greater" than the number of publishers - more than 160,000 of the total 165,000 members - he said, and the system was potentially depriving them of up to £200m in unpaid earnings.

Rowntree's challenge was thrown out by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in August, but he then took the case to the Court of Appeal.

His lawyers told an appeal hearing earlier this month that the tribunal "erred in law", but PRS, which is not-for-profit, argued the legal action was "incoherent and discloses no arguable claim".

Court of Appeal judges have now dismissed the Blur drummer's case, writing their conclusions in a 21-page ruling.

What are black box royalties?

"Black box" royalties are those PRS collects but cannot match to a musical work or pay to an individual due to "data problems" - being unable to identify a person's payment or contact details, for example - the court was told.

The organisation then distributes the royalties "pro rata to its distribution of royalties which can be matched".

In the ruling, Lord Justice Miles said a "true" or "accurate" distribution of these royalties could not be known "because the root of the black box royalties problem is the absence of accurate information - and, conversely, if accurate information were available, the relevant royalties would be matched".

This means that no member can say they are entitled to any specific amount of those royalties.

"Once one accepts that the PRS has to adopt some rule of distribution for the black box royalties, the fairness of its chosen rule can only be assessed by comparison with some other rule," the judge added.

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The ruling highlighted how a different distribution system could have a negative impact on lesser-known artists, saying it could "demonstrably favour" the "superstar writers" whose songs are widely known, giving Ed Sheeran as an example.

The judge also said Rowntree, who stood as a Labour candidate for Mid Sussex in the 2024 general election, had not offered "even a broad description" of a better or fairer way to distribute the unidentified royalties.

He continued: "In my judgment the reason why no counterfactual has been advanced, even in general terms, is manifest: it is that the very data failure problem which has given rise to the black box royalties means that there is no plausible basis for suggesting a more accurate, let alone fairer, distribution."

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