{"id":10164,"date":"2026-04-05T12:18:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/umg-believe-settle-lawsuit-over-alleged-kendrick-lamar-knockoff-songs\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:18:26","slug":"umg-believe-settle-lawsuit-over-alleged-kendrick-lamar-knockoff-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/umg-believe-settle-lawsuit-over-alleged-kendrick-lamar-knockoff-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"UMG, Believe Settle Lawsuit Over Alleged Kendrick Lamar Knockoff Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tUniversal Music Group has reached a settlement to end a $500 million lawsuit accusing Believe and TuneCore of \u201cmassive\u201d infringement by distributing sped-up or remixed knockoffs of tracks by Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and others.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit, filed in 2024, claimed that Believe and its TuneCore unit were \u201coverrun with fraudulent artists\u201d and had \u201cturned a blind eye\u201d to it. The French music firm has strongly denied the accusations, saying it takes \u201crespect of copyright very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIn court filings on Friday (April 3), attorneys for both UMG and Believe asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. It was unclear if Believe had agreed to pay any money to UMG, or to alter any of the practices at issue in the lawsuit. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed publicly, and neither side commented on the deal or shared details. A rep for Believe told Billboard<\/em>: \u201cThe litigation was resolved amicably.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFounded in 2005 by Denis Ladegaillerie<\/strong>, a former Vivendi executive, Believe has grown substantially in recent years by focusing on large European markets and developing markets globally. From 2020 to 2024, its revenue rose 124% to $1.05 billion, and it launched a new publishing arm in October. In 2015, Believe bought TuneCore, a popular distribution service for self-releasing artists.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in 2024, UMG claimed in its lawsuit that Believe and TuneCore had been able to \u201cachieve dramatic growth and profitability\u201d by turning themselves into \u201ca hub for the distribution of infringing copies of the world\u2019s most popular copyrighted recordings.\u201d The music giant said it would seek a whopping $500 million in damages from Believe over the alleged illegal conduct.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoined in filing the case by ABKCO and Concord Music Group, UMG claimed that Believe\u2019s catalog included phony tracks by \u201cKendrik Laamar,\u201d \u201cArriana Gramde\u201d and \u201cJutin Biber,\u201d songs that were \u201covertly infringing versions\u201d of the originals, often only lightly remixed or sped up. And it claimed Believe knew about it, but had agreed to distribute \u201canyone willing to sign one of its basic form agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBelieve\u2019s illicit strategy to accumulate and monetize a vast catalog of infringing recordings has been wildly successful,\u201d UMG\u2019s lawyers wrote at the time. \u201cWhile Believe is fully aware that its business model is fueled by rampant piracy, it has eschewed basic measures to prevent copyright violations and turned a blind eye to the fact that its music catalog was rife with [infringement].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Billboard<\/em>\u2018s Kristin Robinson wrote at the time, the lawsuit not only made major accusations about Believe and TuneCore, but also raised big questions about the business model of DIY distribution as a whole: \u201cThese problems are definitely not unique to TuneCore,\u201d one expert said.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the case essentially never got underway. The litigation almost immediately went into settlement talks that lasted for more than a year, and in December, both sides said they had reached \u201ca tentative settlement in principle on many of the key issues\u201d and the case was formally paused to allow them to finalize a deal.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universal Music Group has reached a settlement to end a $500 million lawsuit accusing Believe and TuneCore of \u201cmassive\u201d infringement by distributing sped-up or remixed knockoffs of tracks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[460,402,3741,403,303,448,3790,1109],"class_list":["post-10164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-alleged","tag-kendrick","tag-knockoff","tag-lamar","tag-lawsuit","tag-settle","tag-songs","tag-umg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}