Robert Plant received dividend payouts totalling £3 million from two of his businesses, company filings suggest.
Documents published on December 19 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 31.
Trolcharm paid a dividend of £1.75 million, while 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, LedZepNews reported in January.
Plant is not 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 published 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” used by Plant to receive royalties from the 87 Led Zeppelin songs he helped to write.
During the 2016 trial, it emerged that Plant received £2.1 million in royalty payments sent to Sons Of Einion for the period from May 2012 to March 2013.
Trolcharm also appears to be used for Plant’s Led Zeppelin royalties. An accounting statement showing money paid to Trolcharm was entered into evidence during the 2016 copyright trial in the US, suggesting the business receives 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”.
