Eminem's managers seek digital royalties

LOS ANGELES, May 22 (UPI) -- Two companies managing rapper Eminem filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles, claiming music companies did not pay them royalties owed from legal downloads.

In the suit filed against Aftermath Records, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings and ARY Inc., Eminem's managers said they should receive 50 percent from every download purchased or ring tone sold, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported Tuesday. The Michigan-based companies, F.B.T. Productions LLC and Em2M LLC, said they received an average of 12 percent.

The suit, filed by a Nashville law firm representing the management firms, claimed that, by contract, Eminem's management team should receive 50 percent of receipts "for the sale of records or other uses of the masters."

An audit in February 2006 showed the companies lost out on $650,000 for the digital mixes and are owed more than $1 million, according to the suit.

Rock bands Cheap Trick and The Allman Brothers filed a similar suit against Sony BMG last year in New York. That suit has reached class-action status.

The Nashville attorneys did not indicate whether they would seek class-action status for the case filed Monday.