UPDATE [08/05/2023]: After a confirmation tweet by Diddy indicating that he does indeed have to pay Sting $5,000 a day, the rapper has now revealed on social media that the whole thing was a joke. As reported on Page Six, Diddy kept the joke going for a day or two while various publications reported on the lucrative copyright case.
Yet it turns out Diddy was just being โfacetiousโ after the Sting interview, detailed below, resurfaced. Chalk this up to another case of the media, us included, foolishly acting fast on a social media post.
Original Article โ Diddy Has To Pay Sting $5,000 USD Every Single Day For Sampling Him Without Permission
Music royalties. It can be a complicated concept to get around, especially when it comes to an art form like hip hop, where sampling other recorded music is commonplace. Numerous lawsuits pop up every year surrounding the issue of sampling and many of them result in hefty fees having to be paid by the producer to the artist they sampled.
Yet, weโve never seen a case as lucrative as this one. That is, the settled copyright dispute between now-friends Sean โDiddyโ Combs and Sting.
Back in 1997, when the man was still going by the stage name Puff Daddy, Combs sampled Stingโs signature song, โEvery Breathe You Takeโ on Biggie tribute track โIโll Be Missing You,โ which he put out featuring Bigโs widow Faith Evans and R&B foursome 112. Although rather than do everything by the book, Puffy seemingly neglected to ask for permission before sampling the original, which Sting recorded with his former band The Police in the early 80s.
Reportedly, Diddy waited until after his hit song, which topped the US Billboard charts for 11 weeks, to ask Stingโs team if he could use the song. Itโs now known that Sting sued โshortly afterโ and the matter was settled quickly. After all, itโs a fairly open-and-shut case as far as copyright law goes.
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In 2018, Sting was asked about the matter by The Breakfast Club, to which he revealed that the result worked out very well for the legendary singer. Diddyโs mistake resulted in the hip hop mogul having to pay Sting US$5,000 (AU$7,487) every single day, presumably for โthe rest of his life.โ
Sting didnโt mention when the sampling dispute was settled but โIโll Be Missing Youโ was released in 1997. Assuming Stingโs โshortly afterโ comment means the case sprung up in the same year, that means Diddy has been paying Sting over $7,000 each and every single day for over 25 years (1998 โ 2023), which translates to 9,125 days. Thatโs over $63,875,000.
Diddy confirmed this in response to the resurfaced Sting interview, which is currently doing the rounds on Twitter.
Despite the generational debt Diddy has found himself in, it seems both artists have formed a close friendship as a result, with Sting noting that they are โvery good friends.โ
Although unconfirmed, itโs assumed Universal Music Publishing, which purchased most of Stingโs catalogue for US$350 million (AU$524 million) last year gets at least a cut of Diddyโs repayments as well. The terms of the deal arenโt known, but itโs likely Sting still owns some of his own publishing.
Interestingly enough, the other members of The Police, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers, donโt get a single dime for the deal. This is despite the fact that itโs Summersโ immortal guitar riff that is the sole element from โEvery Breathe You Takeโ that was actually sampled. And while Sting and his heirs will keep receiving royalties until at least 2053, no one from Summers family will receive royalties.
2053 marks 56 years since โIโll Be Missing Youโ came out. Thatโs 20,454 days. You do the math.
In a 2000 interview with Revolver, Copeland spoke on the issue, stating that Sting was โmaking out like a bank robber here, while Andy and I have gone unrewarded and unloved for our efforts and contributionsโ.
In 2010, Stingโs former business manager claimed that the whole thing is responsible for more than 25% of all of Stingโs lifetime publishing income. No wonder The Police broke up.
Last year Forbes listed Diddyโs net worth as US$1 billion (AU$1.4 billion). According to Celebrity Net Worth, Sting is worth just over half that at US$550 million (AU$823.5 million).
