Exclaim!

Four Tet's First Three Records for Domino Have Been Removed from Streaming Amid Legal Case

"This is heartbreaking to me," Kieran Hebden wrote in a Twitter thread
Four Tet's First Three Records for Domino Have Been Removed from Streaming Amid Legal Case
Photo: Atsuko Kobasigawa
By Kaelen Bell
Published Nov 22, 2021
Four Tet's first three albums for Domino Records — 2001's Pause, 2003's Rounds, and 2005's Everything Ecstatic — have been removed from streaming services following a legal dispute that began earlier this year between the artist and label over streaming and download royalties.

In a thread posted to Twitter yesterday (November 21), Four Tet's Kieran Hebden laid out the situation, writing: 

I'm so upset to see that [Domino Records] have removed the 3 albums of mine they own from digital and streaming services. This is heartbreaking to me. People are reaching out asking why they can't stream the music and I'm sad to have to say that it's out of my control.

In a series of follow-up tweets, Hebden said that Domino's legal team reached out to him last week to tell him that his music would be removed from digital service in order to halt the progression of the ongoing legal case, which is due to be heard in court on January 18, 2022. 

The lawsuit centres on the royalty rate that Domino is contractually obligated to pay for streaming royalties and downloads. Hebden is asking for a rate of 50 percent, while Domino is fighting to maintain its rate of 18 percent of all streams and downloads. In the lawsuit, it's noted that Four Tet signed this contract with Domino in 2001, long before Spotify launched and also before the release of the first iPod, which came out later in 2001. 

Elsewhere in Hebden's thread, he mentioned that he "signed with Domino over 20 years ago, in a different time before streaming and downloads were something we thought about."

He continued, writing, "I believe there is an issue within the music industry on how the money is being shared out in the streaming era and I think it's time for artists to be able to ask for a fairer deal."

There's been no public response from Domino so far, and the albums still aren't available to stream. 

You can read the entire thread below.