Pink Floyd Wins Court Battle Against EMI

Pink Floyd has won a Court of Appeal battle that has raged on for many months against its record label EMI over online royalties. Back in March, it was reported that the band had won their case at the English High Court, barring the record company from selling single downloads from their concept albums. EMI were found in breach of former agreements by "wrongly exploiting" the band’s album works by releasing singles online without their consent. The group also noted they were not paid enough for the digital downloads. Following EMI's appeal, the Court of Appeal judge has ruled in the group's favor. EMI previously confessed it allowed online single downloads from the albums and also supplied parts of the tracks to be used as ringtones. But the band explained that many of the tracks merged into one another as part of the whole album and they did not want them taken out of context, for example all of Dark Side of the Moon. The judge found the group wanted "to preserve the artistic integrity of the albums," thus rejecting the label’s appeal. Pink Floyd has supposedly sold over 200 million albums worldwide, so this is kind of a big deal, especially considering that online sales are the primary moneymaker now. EMI has taken many hits in recent years, as major acts like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and Radiohead have all left the label. The company showed its distress when it attempted to sell Abbey Road Studios earlier this year, until a public retort caused them to reconsider.