Photo Credit: A. Jay Popoff performing with Lit aboard Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni (Public Domain)
Pop-punk rockers Lit, best known for the 1999 single “My Own Worst Enemy,” have settled their lawsuit against Sony Music over streaming royalties.
Lit, the band behind the 1999 hits “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Miserable,” has settled its lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment over an alleged breach of contract and unpaid streaming royalties.
According to a court filing dated July 7, the band and the major label have reached a “settlement in principle,” the terms of which remain undisclosed, and a written agreement is still being finalized. After being notified of the deal, U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan closed the case on Tuesday.
The band sued Sony Music in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in March. Specifically, the complaint was brought by frontman A. Jay Popoff, guitarist Jeremy Popoff, bassist Kevin Baldes, and the estate of the late drummer Allen Shellenberger.
Among their complaints, the band argued that Sony, which acquired RCA Records long after the band signed to the label in 1998, had been paying Lit a 14% U.S. royalty rate for its streams. But the band asserted that their 1998 contract with RCA entitled them to 50% of net receipts whenever a master is licensed, treating an on-demand stream as a “master use” license as opposed to a sale.
Of course, when that deal was signed in 1998, streaming services were still a few years out, and Napster wouldn’t launch until the following year.
As a result, Lit claimed that the language in that agreement entitled them to more than $800,000 in underpaid streaming royalties. The complaint also alleged that Sony had used the wrong formula for video streaming royalties, and it therefore never applied the escalated rate called for in the band’s deal once their album A Place in the Sun achieved gold and platinum status.
Lit also claimed that the reduced royalty reporting had lowered their pension contributions and affected their health insurance eligibility through SAG-AFTRA.
The band said they had tried to renegotiate with Sony since 2023, but the major had offered a “half-hearted defense” of the existing rate before it stopped responding altogether.
