The ongoing trial between Sony Music Entertainment UK and The Jimi Hendrix Experience is due to come to a head, having been playing out in London’s High Court since December 2025. However, the wider dispute over the sound recordings of The Jimi Hendrix Experience has been ongoing for over three decades. At the heart of the issue is the music industry of the 1960s quite understandably not being able to foresee the giant that is music streaming as a result of physical media’s decades of development.
The estates of both bass player Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell claim that Sony has consistently profited from recordings made by the band and subsequently failed to sufficiently compensate the musicians and their estates - following the passings of both Redding and Mitchell in 2003 and 2008 respectively. The case is founded on the claim that both Redding and Mitchell “died in penury”, despite The Jimi Hendrix Experience being one of the most culturally and commercially defining bands of the late 1960’s.
The alleged breaches of copyright concern the recordings of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s three studio albums ‘Are You Experienced?’, ‘Axis: Bold as Love’ and ‘Electric Ladyland’ – all considered to be at the very forefront of the electric guitar’s development as well as being crucial in counter-cultural movements. Both Mitchell and Redding’s contributions to these albums have been well documented and the case for their estates being further compensated for these recordings is strong enough for the case to have proceeded to trial.
Rock music’s outrageous, ragged and disorganised image was not born out of myth, and the drawn-out litigation following virtuoso Hendrix’s death in 1970 perfectly encapsulates why. Throughout Hendrix’s career he kept a flurry of lawyers on their toes, and the fallout from his tragic death aged just 27 complicated matters further. This isn’t an isolated incident either, as members of The Police are trawling through a similarly complicated run of legal battles concerning “admitted historic under-payments” due to an inability to predict just how fundamental streaming services have become to musicians’ revenue streams.
What does this mean for up-and-coming bands?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience had what can only be described as an unrelenting tour schedule, often playing two shows per day and frequently performing in four different cities across four consecutive days. Between the income from these seemingly unending tour schedules and the impressive commercial success all three albums saw, it would’ve been hard to predict the financial uncertainty Redding and Mitchell experienced throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s without Hendrix. Hence, this court case comes to the fore.
In the band’s short sprint to the top of the rock and roll mountain, each member should have continually profited from three core pillars of earning a living as a musician: album sales, tour revenue and merchandise sales. Comparing this to bands in 2026 provides a bleak outlook that is becoming all too familiar. Welsh band Cardinal Black provide an honest assessment of the finances involved in modern-day touring, suggesting that to scrape together a run of UK tour dates and take any pay home they first have to cover over £60,000 in costs. This is the heart of the argument being put forward by Mitchell and Redding’s estates, as it reinforces just how vital record sales revenue is to earning a living – something lost in the payments for streaming figures.
Combining the innumerable costs of touring with the pitiful return on streams compared to physical record sales from the 20th century, there’s plenty of reason to be deterred from starting a band. As of 2025, over half of independent music venues do not make any profit, which begs the question, where is the music industry’s money going? Perhaps when the dust settles in the fight between Sony and the estates of Mitchell and Redding we’ll be closer to an answer…
It is certainly a sorry state of affairs that the lasting reputation of The Jimi Hendrix Experience has been marred by speculation and financial trouble. Verbal agreements and musicians without legal support are becoming historic practices for this very reason – but this is only a small aspect of the modern musician’s financial woes.
The scale of this legal action stretches well beyond the estates of both Mitchell and Redding, as the result of the trial could set a new precedent should Sony be made to compensate recording musicians for their work. In essence, the upcoming verdict is weighing in on the entire music industry and potentially makes not just Sony, but any major corporation, vulnerable to legal action which would aim to re-claim any money lost by recording artists in the world’s transition from physical media into streaming.
With that being said, Independent Venues Week runs from the 27th of January until the 3rd of February and is the perfect opportunity to support your local music scene. You never know, you might witness the next great drummer to emulate Mitchell. Though hopefully with better legal representation.