Sony wins London lawsuit over Jimi Hendrix streaming royalties claim

Sony Music Entertainment won a London High Court battle that had threatened to open a wider fight over streaming income from classic catalogues, after a judge ruled that Jimi Hendrix Experience bandmates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell had given up their rights decades ago.

Mr Justice Edwin Johnson handed down the judgment remotely at 10.30 a.m. on April 28, 2026, in case [2026] EWHC 983 (Ch). The dispute covered about 40 studio recordings made by the Jimi Hendrix Experience between 1966 and 1968, including the landmark albums Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland, records that helped define the psychedelic era before Hendrix died in 1970 at 27.

The claim was brought by the estates of Redding and Mitchell, who died in 2003 and 2008, after their descendants assigned any rights they believed they held to two companies that sued Sony in 2022. Sony argued that a 1966 recording agreement allowed the tracks to be exploited by any method now known or hereafter to be known, and the court accepted that reading. Reporting on the judgment said the case failed on three independent grounds, including the conclusion that the estates were not co-owners of the sound-recording copyrights and that the old deal was not limited to a particular delivery method.

The outcome matters because streaming has become the dominant way music is monetized, especially for older recordings whose original contracts were signed long before digital distribution existed. Sony had warned at trial that a claimant victory could have encouraged a wave of suits from session musicians and backing vocalists seeking slices of streaming income from legacy masters. The trial itself ran for seven days in December 2025, on December 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18.

The dispute also revisited money paid long before the streaming era took hold. Redding received $100,000 in 1973 and Mitchell $247,500 in 1973 in settlement-style payouts that Sony argued were buyouts of future claims. Sony and Experience Hendrix said the litigation had lasted more than four years.

The ruling leaves labels and estates with a clearer legal line in Britain. It does not erase every possible challenge over old recordings, but it makes similar royalty claims far harder where pre-digital contracts were written broadly. Experience Hendrix, formed in 1995 by James ‘Al’ Hendrix to manage Jimi Hendrix’s name, likeness, image and music legacy worldwide, remains in control of the catalog’s family side, while Sony has handled distribution since 2010. For aging performers and heirs trying to capture more of streaming revenue, the High Court drew a sharp boundary around the Hendrix catalogue and preserved the legal status quo for classic recordings in the United Kingdom.