Diddy Says He Pays Sting $5,000 Per Day for ‘Every Breath You Take’ Sample

Diddy says he’s paying Sting $5,000 per day for sampling the Police frontman’s 1983 blockbuster hit “Every Breath You Take” on his own 1997 song “I’ll Be Missing You.” Diddy tweeted Wednesday in response to a resurfaced video clips from a 2018 interview Sting did with the Breakfast Club.

As noted by the Shade Room, the clips shows interviewer Charlamagne Tha God asking Sting to confirm whether Diddy pays him $2,000 daily for sampling the song on “I’ll Be Missing You.” Sting says yes, “for the rest of his life,” to laughter, and then confirms that Diddy asked for permission to sample the hit after his own song was released.

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He notes that there are no hard feelings and that the two are “are very good friends now,” adding, “It was a beautiful version of that song.”

Presumably a large percentage of that daily $5k is going to Universal Music Publishing, which last year acquired the song along with most or all of Sting’s song catalog in a deal reported to be worth around $350 million. However, while terms of the deal were not disclosed, it seems likely that Sting kept at least some of the song and the catalog’s substantial publishing and/ or songwriter shares.

The comprehensive worldwide agreement includes the entirety of both Sting’s solo works as well as those with The Police, including “Roxanne,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Shape Of My Heart,” “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You,” “Fields Of Gold,” “Desert Rose,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Englishman in New York” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” among other hits.

Presumably, he would also continue to receive a solid share of its recorded-music royalties and any synchronization use. Reps for Diddy, Sting and Universal did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for clarification.

Originally released in May of 1983, “Every Breath You Take” was the biggest hit by Sting’s former band, the Police, and topped the U.S. charts for some eight weeks that year and won two Grammy Awards; it also went No. 1 in the U.K., Canada and several other countries and was a Top 10 hit in several others.

“I’ll Be Missing You,” credited to Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring the vocal group 112, was released almost exactly 14 years later as a tribute to Diddy’s friend and collaborator the Notorious B.I.G., who was shot to death two months earlier in a murder that remains unsolved. It became an even bigger hit, topping the U.S. charts for 11 weeks and reaching No. 1 in multiple countries across the globe.

Sting was originally not credited on the song and sued, but as he said, the matter was soon resolved.

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Originally published April 6, 2023, 10:10 AM