Dionne Warwick sued over royalties from Doja Cat sample deal

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A royalty collection firm that negotiated Doja Cat’s use of Dionne Warwick’s Walk On By is suing the latter singer, claiming she’s trying to cut off payments under agreements that entitled the company to “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars” in earnings.

Artists Rights Enforcement Corporation filed its complaint on Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging breach of contract and “unjust enrichment.”

The firm says it negotiated the 2023 sample deal that let Doja Cat use Warwick’s 1964 recording in Paint the Town Red. The complaint, which you can read here, stated: “Ms. Warwick profited enormously from Artists Rights’ work” in that sample deal. The Doja Cat hit has to date amassed nearly 1.5 billion streams on Spotify and music video 377 million views on YouTube.

In the lawsuit, Artists Rights said it handled the sample licensing on Warwick’s behalf under a 2002 contract that gives the firm 50% of royalties recovered from her work as a Scepter Records artist. The firm said it has provided resources and assistance to Warwick for decades “at no cost to her so that she could obtain fair compensation for her vast body of work which she had not been receiving.”

The complaint noted that a month after signing their agreement in January 2002, Warwick sued Warner Bros., Warner Strategic Marketing and Warner Special Products, and Atlantic Recording Corporation, alleging the companies failed to pay royalties for master recordings and her 1974 hit Then Came You.

After years of litigation paid for by Artists Rights, the parties reached a settlement in March 2004. One provision required record companies to send all future royalty statements and payments due Warwick to Artists Rights. The firm has received all royalty payments for distribution for over 20 years, according to the complaint.

But now, Warwick is allegedly attempting to terminate the decades-old agreement and has asked record labels to pay her directly instead of Artists Rights, the complaint said. source