Universal Music is to pay as much as $11.5 million and increase future royalties for some artists following a lawsuit against the company alleging it recorded downloads 'as sales instead of licences'.

According to Billboard, the settlement will see around 7,500 artists compensated.

Some of the plaintiffs have been named as Chuck D, Rick James, Dave Mason of Traffic and Whitesnake.

One of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Len Simon, said: “This settlement is a fair resolution of this controversy over ...