{"id":2454,"date":"2024-08-30T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T16:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/barry-manilow-sues-hipgnosis-for-1-5-million-in-bonus-dispute\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T16:52:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T16:52:00","slug":"barry-manilow-sues-hipgnosis-for-1-5-million-in-bonus-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/barry-manilow-sues-hipgnosis-for-1-5-million-in-bonus-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Manilow Sues Hipgnosis for $1.5 Million in Bonus Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n

\n\tBarry Manilow<\/a> is suing Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) in federal court in California seeking $1.5 million in unpaid bonuses related to the music rights company\u2019s acquisition of his catalog four years ago.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe suit by the \u201cMandy\u201d singer, along with his management company Hastings, Clayton & Tucker Inc, or Stilletto Entertainment, follows a similar lawsuit HSF filed earlier this month in London alleging breach of contract relating to the bonus payments. News of the California case was first reported by the\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore Blackstone\u2019s $1.6 billion acquisition of HSF and its prized portfolio that includes songs by Shakira, Red Hot Chilli Peppers\u2019, Manilow and others, shareholders of the publicly listed music royalty trust had revolted over, among other things, the late disclosure of some $40 million in unpaid bonus checks owed to artists.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat liability on the fund\u2019s balance sheet combined with suspension of investors\u2019 dividends and accounting scandals ultimately led to invstors giving the fund\u2019s board a vote of no confidence\u2013a move that resulted in Hipgnosis founder\u00a0Merck Mercuriadis<\/strong> separating from the fund and investment adviser and to the fund\u2019s board selling the portfolio to Blackstone.<\/p>\n

\n\tHipgnosis\u00a0acquired 100% of Manilow\u2019s worldwide recording royalties (excluding SoundExchange royalties), comprising 917 songs, for an initial purchase price of $7.5 million in 2020. The deal included some of the 81-year-old singer\u2019s biggest hits, including \u201cMandy,\u201d \u201cI Write the Songs,\u201d \u201cLooks Like We Made It,\u201d \u201cCan\u2019t Smile Without You\u201d and \u201cCopacabana (At the Copa).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the 14-page complaint filed on Wednesday (Aug. 28), Manilow and Stilletto Entertainment say HSF agreed to make two additional payments of $750,000 each if HSF\u2019s earnings from the catalog reached certain benchmarks. Manilow and his management company claim those benchmarks have been met, but that HSF engaged \u201cin a prolonged game of cat and mouse to avoid that obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRepresentatives from HSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barry Manilow is suing Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) in federal court in California seeking $1.5 million in unpaid bonuses related to the music rights company\u2019s acquisition of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2945,3240,323,2947,2946,1159,479],"class_list":["post-2454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-barry","tag-bonus","tag-dispute","tag-hipgnosis","tag-manilow","tag-million","tag-sues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454","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=2454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}