Quincy Jones Sues Michael Jackson Estate, Files $10M Lawsuit Over MJ's Music

On Friday, Quincy Jones filed a $10 million lawsuit against Michael Jackson's estate over the royalties and production fees he claims he is owed.

In addition to MJ's estate, Jones' breach-of-contract lawsuit is going after Sony Music Entertainment and claims that both entities improperly re-edited songs to deprive him of royalties and production fees. The music has been used in the film "This Is It" and a pair of Cirque du Soleil shows based on the King of Pop's songs, the lawsuit states, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The legendary producer, who produced the pop icon's best-selling albums including "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad," also claims that he should have received a producer's credit for the music in "This Is It." In addition, Jones' lawsuit states the producer's contracts called for him to have the first opportunity to re-edit or alter the songs.

In response, Jackson's estate wrote in a statement that it was saddened by Jones' lawsuit. "To the best of its knowledge, Mr. Jones has been appropriately compensated over approximately 35 years for his work with Michael," the statement said, reports the AP.

"Quincy has been frustrated with these matters for a number of years, felt he was not making any progress and needed to take more formal action," says Henry Gradstein, his attorney, reports THR.

Jones says the terms of his deal were breached when MJJ allowed third parties to exploit these works "without first providing a reasonable opportunity to Jones to perform such remixes and/or re-edits." The complaint then goes into "clandestine agreements" allegedly made that reduced Jones' royalties.

The lawsuit states that the Jackson parties "secretly entered into a venture agreement with Sony" where Sony and the Jackson Label would share profits. But Jones also alleges that rights to the master recordings "reverted from Sony to MJJ" and albums featuring the performances of Jackson were "distributed by the Jackson Label, instead of Sony, including albums embodying one or more of the Masters."

As a result, the defendants are charged with an effort to "divert" revenues to MJJ and "disguise" the revenues as "profits" instead of "royalties."