Lit, the American rock band best known for the 1999 pop-punk single "My Own Worst Enemy," has settled its lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment over the calculation of streaming royalties. The two sides reached a "settlement in principle," according to a court filing dated 7 July, though the terms remain undisclosed and a written agreement is still being finalised. The dispute matters because it is one of a growing number of cases in which legacy artists are challenging how major labels apply decades-old contracts, signed before modern streaming existed, to today's on-demand services.

The band — frontman A. Jay Popoff, guitarist Jeremy Popoff, bassist Kevin Baldes and the estate of late drummer Allen Shellenberger — sued Sony in the Southern District of New York in March. Sony, which acquired RCA Records after the label signed Lit in 1998, had been paying a 14% US royalty rate on streams, but the band argued its 1998 contract entitled it to 50% of net receipts by treating a stream as a "master use" licence rather than a sale, claiming more than $800,000 in underpaid royalties. Judge John P. Cronan closed the case on 7 July, giving the parties 45 days to restore it if the settlement is not completed; the case arrived as Sony faces other royalty claims, including an $18m suit from Jermaine Dupri's So So Def, and follows earlier Sony settlements with 19 Recordings (2018) and the estate of Rick Nelson ($12.7m in 2020).