Superstars such as David Bowie, Dolly Parton, Harry Belafonte, Liza Minnelli, Dave Matthews, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Gloria Estefan are among the thousands of artists that will benefit from a $50 million settlement in unclaimed recording and publishing royalties between the U.S. music business and the New York State Attorney General's office.

Under the agreement, the labels have already disbursed more than $25 million to the artists; an additional $25 million is expected to be distributed.

The settlement is the result of a two-year investigation by State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that found many artists and writers were not being paid royalties. Spitzer says the record companies had failed to maintain contact with the artists or their estates and had stopped making required payments. He added that the problem was primarily one of not maintaining accurate contact information, and did not involve disagreement over the terms of recording contracts or the amount of royalty payments.

Under terms of the deal, the majors have agreed to list the names of artists and songwriters owed royalty payments on company Web sites and post advertisements in music-industry publications explaining procedures for claiming the royalties.

The companies will also work with artist groups to locate performers who have not received or collected royalties, share artist contact information with other labels and hold regular meetings between the heads of the labels' royalty accounting and legal departments to review the status of royalty accounts.