Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant has received dividend payouts amassing £3 million from two of his businesses, company filings suggest.
Robert Plant earns massive dividend
Documents published on December 19th by Trolcharm and Sons Of Einion, two UK businesses used by Plant to manage his music career and receive income from album sales, show the businesses paid a total of £3 million in dividends to an unnamed director during the 12-month period ending on March 31th.
Trolcharm paid a dividend of £1.75 million as Sons of Einion paid out £1.25 million, the company filings show.
The total dividend payout of £3 million was a drop in the amount paid to Plant compared to the previous year when the two companies paid a total dividend of £7 million.
Robert Plant has not been directly named as the recipient of the dividend payments in the accounts. Instead, both businesses state that the money was “paid to the director”.
Plant is a director of both businesses, along with his children Logan Plant, Jordan Plant (known as Jesse Lee) and Carmen Jones.
The company filings were revealed publicly online by Companies House, the UK government’s register of companies. The dividend payments to Plant provide a rare look at the music royalties received by Plant from Led Zeppelin album sales and streams as well as from his solo career.
Sons Of Einion was identified during the 2016 copyright trial over “Stairway To Heaven” as a “pass-through entity” through which Plant received royalties from the 87 Led Zeppelin songs he co-wrote. During that trial, it was revealed that Plant received £2.1 million in royalties sent to Sons Of Einion between May 2012 and March 2013.
Trolcharm also appears to be used for Plant’s Led Zeppelin royalties, as an accounting statement showing payments to Trolcharm was presented during the 2016 US copyright trial, indicating that this business manages Led Zeppelin royalties.
The royalties received from Led Zeppelin album sales have been a closely guarded secret since the formation of the band. The band is so secretive about the topic that more than 1,100 pages of deposition transcripts produced ahead of the 2016 trial remain sealed as every page of the transcripts was marked by Led Zeppelin’s lawyers as either “confidential” or “highly confidential”.
