Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, the guitarist and drummer of The Police, are suing Sting in London’s High Court over what they say are millions of pounds in unpaid royalties from streaming and digital use of the band’s music, and the Sting lawsuit brought by his former Police bandmates over royalties is now heading toward a full trial after a preliminary hearing in January 2026. The dispute turns on whether a decades-old “arranger’s fee” agreement covers only physical record sales or reaches modern streaming income as well.
The Arranger’s Fee at the Heart of the Case
When The Police formed in 1977, the three members made an oral agreement to share publishing income. Sting was the principal songwriter, but the deal acknowledged that Summers and Copeland contributed meaningfully to how his songs were arranged. Whenever a member received publishing royalties on a song they had written, they would pay each of the other two a percentage, typically 15 percent, as an arranger’s fee.1BBC News. Police Bandmates Sue Sting Over Royalties
The handshake was put in writing in 1981 and revised over the years, including in 1997 and again in 2016.2Consequence of Sound. Sting The Police Royalty Lawsuit Payment Both sides now lean heavily on the 2016 version, which was itself drafted to settle earlier disagreements over the fee. How broadly its language reaches is the central question in court.
What Summers and Copeland Are Claiming
Summers, Copeland, and their companies Megalo Music, Kent Foundation Laboratories, and Kinetic Kollections filed the claim in September 2025 against Sting, whose legal name is Gordon Matthew Sumner, and his publishing company Magnetic Publishing Limited.3The Guardian. Battle Over The Police Royalties Reaches High Court Their allegation is that Sting has not paid arranger’s fees on income generated by streaming and digital downloads of songs he wrote for The Police.
Early estimates put the amount at stake between $2 million and $10.75 million. By the January 2026 hearing, their barrister Ian Mill KC told the court the claim stood at “not less than £8 million” and would grow “considerably larger” if the judge allowed broader categories of digital income to be added.1BBC News. Police Bandmates Sue Sting Over Royalties
Mill argued the 15 percent fee was always meant to apply to “all publishing income derived from all manner of commercial exploitation,” and that as streaming has replaced CDs and vinyl, the fee should follow the money.3The Guardian. Battle Over The Police Royalties Reaches High Court
“Every Breath You Take” and Why the Fee Exists
No song illustrates the fee’s purpose better than “Every Breath You Take.” Sting is the sole credited songwriter, and his bandmates are not asking to change that. But Summers has long said his arpeggiated guitar riff transformed a rough demo into the finished hit, describing the original as having “a Hammond organ kind of thing, like Billy Preston” with no guitar part, and recalling that he recorded the riff in a single take to a standing ovation in the studio. The song reportedly earns around $740,000 a year in royalties.4Guitar Player. Every Breath You Take Behind Andy Summers Lawsuit Against Sting The arranger’s fee was designed to compensate contributions like that without touching the formal songwriting credit.
Sting’s Defense
Sting’s barrister, Robert Howe KC, has pushed back on the reading Summers and Copeland want the court to adopt. His core argument is that the 2016 agreement was “professionally drafted” and limits royalty payments to mechanical income derived “from the manufacture of records.”5Yahoo News UK. Sting’s Lawyers Claim He Shouldn’t Pay Streaming Royalties On that reading, vinyl and cassette sales trigger the fee; streaming does not.
The defense also contends that streaming revenue is properly treated as public performance income rather than a sale, and that the historical deals never contemplated arranger’s fees on performance royalties.1BBC News. Police Bandmates Sue Sting Over Royalties Sting’s team has characterized the lawsuit as an “illegitimate attempt” to reinterpret the 2016 deal and has suggested that, depending on how the contract is read, Summers and Copeland may already have been “substantially overpaid.”6Guitar Player. Andy Summers Stewart Copeland Sting Police Lawsuit Update
Why Streaming Is the Sticking Point
The case turns on a question the music industry has wrestled with for years: is a stream more like buying a record, or more like hearing a song on the radio? The contracts here treat mechanical income (from the reproduction and sale of records) differently from performance income (from broadcasts and public play), so the label matters.
Streaming actually generates both. When a listener plays a song on an interactive service, the platform reproduces the underlying composition, which triggers mechanical royalties, while also performing it publicly, which triggers performance royalties.7Songtrust. How Spotify Streams Turn Into Royalties In the UK, a single body collects both.8Soundcharts. Mechanical Royalties Sting’s side argues streaming falls outside the “manufacture of records” language of the 2016 agreement. His former bandmates say that language has to be read against an industry in which streaming has largely displaced the physical formats the earlier deals had in mind.
The $870,000 Sting Already Paid
After the litigation was filed, Sting paid his former bandmates $870,000 (about £647,000) for what court filings described as “historic underpayments” of royalties he acknowledged owing.1BBC News. Police Bandmates Sue Sting Over Royalties The payment was not court-ordered. It came voluntarily from Sting and Magnetic Publishing once the claim had been brought.9The Guardian. Every Breath You Take Royalties Dispute
Summers and Copeland have said the payment included no interest on the underpaid amounts Sting conceded, and they maintain it falls far short of what they are owed once digital income is counted.10Guitar Player. The Police Royalties Case Reaches London’s High Court
Where the Case Stands
The two-day preliminary hearing before Mr. Justice Bright concluded on January 15, 2026.5Yahoo News UK. Sting’s Lawyers Claim He Shouldn’t Pay Streaming Royalties No trial date has been announced publicly, but a full trial is expected to follow. The court is also watching a separate, similar case involving the estates of Jimi Hendrix Experience members Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, with a verdict expected in February 2026 that could shape the legal framework applied to the Police dispute.3The Guardian. Battle Over The Police Royalties Reaches High Court
Ian Mill KC framed the question the trial will decide as whether the parties “have accounted to each other for arranger’s fees correctly in accordance with the terms of the 2016 settlement agreement.”11Sky News. Sting Pays £595K to The Police Bandmates Court Hears In June 2026, Stewart Copeland gave what were described as his first public remarks about the dispute in a video interview with The Australian, though the substance of those remarks was not detailed in available reporting.12The Australian. Sting vs The Police Drummer Stewart Copeland on Royalties Legal Battle One boundary worth noting: this is a contract case, not a copyright case. Summers and Copeland are not asking to be added as co-writers on any Police song. They are asking a court to decide what income the arranger’s fee was meant to cover.