Every time a comedian’s royalty fight hits the news, my phone lights up. Here’s what most people get wrong about them: These disputes usually aren’t about whether the comic is owed money. They’re about how, years earlier, the deal defined what money the comic was to be paid and how. The contract language, which was usually written long before anyone was famous, is what determines who wins.
Streaming has made this worse, because old agreements never imagined the formats the work now lives in, or how payments would be determined or made. A clause drafted for CDs doesn’t know what a stream is.
I’ve spent decades on both the deal side and the dispute side of these sorts of issues. I even did a gig as an expert on comedy-industry custom and practice (on the comics’ side, of course).
Managers and litigators: If you are working one of these, I’m always glad to talk shop. Drop me a note.