90s Band Lit Says Sony Music Is Their Own Worst Enemy — And Still Owes Them $800,000

Photo Credit: Alan “Ajay” Popoff of Lit for the U.S. National Archives and Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (Public Domain)

90s rockers Lit are suing Sony Music Entertainment over an alleged breach of contract and unpaid streaming royalties of over $800,000.

Rock band Lit, best known for the 90s hit “My Own Worst Enemy,” has filed a lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment (SME) over an alleged breach of contract. The band claims the music giant still owes them over $800,000 in streaming royalties.

According to the complaint, which was filed on March 2 in the Southern District of New York, the band originally signed its exclusive recording agreement with RCA Records in 1998, before it was acquired by Sony Music.

The band claims Sony has been paying Lit’s audio streaming royalties at a flat 14% rate, when their contract stipulates that those royalties should be calculated on a “Net Receipts” basis, which is often a more favorable formula for artists and treats streams as equal to master use or sync licensing.

The lawsuit also alleges that Sony applied the wrong formula for the band’s video streaming royalties, paying about 17% instead of applying a 50% rate based on net receipts as per their contract. Finally, Lit claims Sony never applied the correct royalty rates once their album A Place in the Sun hit Gold and Platinum status—which even without their exclusive recording agreement should have bumped up their rate from 14% to 15%.

Lit’s filing alleges that Sony committed these breaches of contract “with full knowledge of the vast number of similarly situated artists materially impacted by [Sony’s] intentional breaches of its own contractual language.”

The group says they first raised accounting objections in July 2023, and continued pressing the issue through 2025. Initially, they say Sony offered limited defense of its position, but then stopped responding to the band’s legal team altogether. The band is seeking full damages, attorneys’ fees, and a trial by jury to determine the exact amount in damages.