Four Tet Albums Removed From Streaming Amid Domino Records Royalty Dispute

Earlier this year, Four Tet's Kieran Hebden took legal action against Domino Records over a dispute with streaming and download royalties for the first three albums that he released with the label: 2001's Pause, 2003's Rounds, and 2005's Everything Ecstatic. Those three albums have recently been removed from digital stores and streaming services, as Hebden pointed out on his social media account.

"I’m so upset to see that@Dominorecordcohave removed the 3 albums of mine they own from digital and streaming services," Hebden wrote on Twitter. "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."

He continued via a series of tweets:

I have an ongoing legal dispute with Domino over the rate they pay me for streaming that is due to be heard in court on the 18th of January. It was in the press a little while back.

Earlier this week Domino’s legal representative said they would remove my music from all digital services in order to stop the case progressing.  I did not agree to them taking this action and I’m truly shocked that it has come to this.

I signed with Domino over 20 years ago, in a different time before streaming and downloads were something we thought about.

I considered the people who ran Domino to be my friends and to be driven by trying to create a great musical community. As a result Domino own 3 of my albums forever. Music I created that’s important to me and to many of you too.

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 its time for artists to be able to ask for a fairer deal.

It’s time to try and make changes where we can. I’m not driven by the money, but I have to make a stand when I am experiencing something that’s simply unfair.

Shout out to everyone out there enjoying my music and supporting the stuff I do!! I hope we can get this music back soon…

2010's There Is Love In You, which was also released on Domino, was part of a separate contract and is still available digitally. When the legal dispute was made public earlier this year, Domino lawyers argued that when the contract for these albums was made, "streaming was not ... a mainstream method for the lawful distribution of recorded music."

UPDATE (11/23): Caribou has weighed in on Four Tet's legal situation: