NoCopyrightSounds (NCS) has been awarded an interim payment of GBP £1.4 million, plus interest, from its former distributor AEI Music.
The High Court in London also ordered AEI and the label’s former sub-publisher, Featherstone Music, to provide interim accounts setting out the debt owed to NCS.
Both orders are interim measures granted ahead of a trial due in January 2028.
NCS brought the application in March 2026 under Part 25 of the Civil Procedure Rules.
The court heard it on July 23, according to a statement published by Simkins, the London law firm representing the label.
Judgment on the interim accounts was given at the hearing itself, while the written judgment on the interim payment was handed down on September 15, under neutral citation NoCopyrightSounds Ltd v AEI Music Ltd & Anor [2026] EWHC 2360 (Ch).
The ordered accounts must set out the debt owed to NCS by AEI Music, plus the sums AEI retained after the relationship ended that were due to the label’s artists and songwriters.
They must also contain accounting information covering a specified period, and establish the recoupment position of NCS‘s artists and songwriters.
On the money, NCS had asked for an interim payment of GBP £3 million.
That figure was based on an estimated debt, interest, and separate amounts due to its artists and writers totaling GBP £6.5 million.
The court found that, even on the defendants’ own evidence, the debt stands at a minimum of GBP £4.5 million.
It then gave credit, on an interim basis only, for a GBP £1.06 million counterclaim over an alleged breach of contract for early termination, and for a GBP £2 million counterclaim for alleged unjust enrichment, a figure that had not been valued in the pleadings but had appeared in pre-action correspondence.
Deducting that combined GBP £3.06 million and rounding down produced the GBP £1.4 million award, with interest still to be determined.
“The court described this approach as generous to the Defendants,” Simkins said.
“The court found that £1.4m was a reasonable proportion of the likely amount NCS would receive at trial, and that it should not have to wait until trial to receive any payment at all,” the firm added.
“The court found that there was no real dispute that AEI Music owes NCS very substantial sums.”
The court also rejected AEI‘s submission that nothing was presently due to NCS on grounds of waiver and estoppel.
Any assurance that the debt did not need to be repaid “immediately” was suspensory only and came to an end when the letter of claim was sent, the court found, according to Simkins.
On an alternative reading, that assurance allowed a reasonable time to pay rather than an indefinite suspension, and AEI had offered no suggestion as to what a reasonable period might be.
Nearly a year and a half had passed since the alleged estoppel, Simkins added.
AEI Music Group, which describes AEI Music Ltd as its subsidiary, told MBW that it intends to seek permission to appeal the interim decision.
In a statement provided to MBW on September 28, the company said the ruling was not a final determination of the wider dispute, including its “substantial counterclaims, which remain to be resolved at trial.”
AEI said it was “proud of the role it played in developing NCS from its early stages,” and that it regretted the breakdown of its longstanding relationship with the label’s other shareholders.
The company added that it “remains committed to resolving the outstanding issues between the parties constructively.”
The AEI group remains a 25.25% shareholder in NCS, it added, and retains an interest in the company’s future success.
“This is a classic example of a dispute which ultimately would be best resolved by mediation and we remain hopeful that this can be achieved.”
Diluk Dias, AEI Music
AEI co-founder Diluk Dias said: “We are proud of what we built together with NCS and saddened that a very close working relationship should come to this.
“This is a classic example of a dispute which ultimately would be best resolved by mediation and we remain hopeful that this can be achieved.”
The ruling is the latest court win for NCS in the dispute this year.
In January 2026, the High Court granted the label an interim injunction barring AEI and Featherstone from continuing to exploit its catalog, or from trading under its name, and requiring AEI to take positive steps to allow NCS to exploit those rights.
That order, made in terms the parties had by then agreed, ran until trial or further order, though in practice it bit only until the end of July 2026, when the parties’ contractual relationship was due to expire in any event on the defendants’ own case.
The written reasons, handed down by His Honour Judge Jarman KC on February 6 under citation [2026] EWHC 198 (Ch), followed a hearing on January 21.
NCS learned of the debt during 2024, after AEI failed to account properly for sums owed under agreements dating back to 2014, according to Simkins.
By May 2025, AEI confirmed the debt had grown to GBP £4.1 million, and that it could not afford to pay more than GBP £250,000 without risking insolvency.
NCS terminated its agreements with AEI for unremedied material breach in September 2025, and its agreement with Featherstone that same month, after serving 60 days’ notice in July.
NCS issued its High Court claim that November.
Founded by Billy Woodford in 2011, NCS lets content creators use its catalog free of charge in exchange for a credit, and monetizes the tracks through streaming and commercial licensing.
It began as a YouTube channel, and from 2014 operated under a series of agreements with the AEI group, whose electronic music brands also include UKF and Drum&BassArena.
The label’s catalog of over 1,500 tracks had generated more than 500 billion plays globally as of 2024, as previously reported by MBW.
NCS‘s Label Manager, Pete Torrington, told MBW in December 2021 that a typical release is used in at least 150,000 videos within two weeks of coming out.
At trial, NCS will seek “the payment of a debt (or damages) plus interest of an additional circa £5 million, plus a full account,” and will defend the counterclaims, Simkins said.
NCS was represented by Simkins partners Tom Iverson, Ed Weidman, and Stuart Smith, and associates Hugo Mason and Ned Gompertz, who instructed Ian Mill KC and Tom Cleaver of Blackstone Chambers.
AEI and Featherstone were represented by Keystone Law, instructing Andrew de Mestre KC and James Knott.Music Business Worldwide
