The Police: Details on Massive ‘Synchronicity’ Box Set
“The Police is giving their final studio album, 1983’s Synchronicity, the grand reissue treatment, which also includes a massive box set.
Due out July 26, the Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set of Synchronicity will contain a staggering six discs and 55 previously unreleased tracks. Universal Music Group also notes the Synchronicity box set will contain “new liner notes and interviews, rare archival memorabilia, and unseen photographs.
The litany of extras also includes 19 previously unreleased live recordings from a September 1983 Police show at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum and alternate studio versions of each album track.
Universal Music Group stated this reissue/box set has been in the works for over three years. In August 2023, Sting confirmed the Synchronicity box set to 102.9 WMGK's Andre Gardner saying, “I think there’s a 40th anniversary of ‘Synchronicity’ coming up, which does have some extra stuff on it. My demos, I think, have been included … By the time we were doing ‘Synchronicity,’ I was doing pretty sophisticated demos.”
This Synchronicity reissue is available in a variety of formats, other than the Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set. Other formats include colored vinyl, picture discs and CD. Fans can pre-order the reissue at Store.ThePolice.com, where exclusive merch is also available.
Could the Synchronicity Reissue Lead to a Lawsuit?
In October 2023, former Police guitarist Andy Summers alluded to there being a pending lawsuit about “Every Breath You Take,” the massive hit from Synchronicity. Summers famously wrote the iconic riff that acts as the hook to the song. However, Sting is the only songwriter listed on the track.
Summers touched on this in an appearance on The Jeremy White Show, where he referred to his lack of a songwriting credit as “a very contentious [topic] that is very much alive at the moment.” He was then asked if there was going to be some sort of lawsuit to get listed as a songwriter on the track. Summers replied, “Watch the press. Let’s see what happens in the next year.”
In November 2021, Summers told Ultimate Classic Rock that neither he nor Stewart Copeland — who also wrote his drum parts but isn’t listed as a songwriter — have received royalties for “Every Breath You Take.” While the song was popular upon its release in 1983, it had a massive resurgence in 1997 when it was sampled on Puff Daddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You.”
Interestingly, Puff Daddy never asked permission to sample “Every Breath You Take,” and the whole dispute ended up in court. As a result, Sting now receives 100 percent of the royalties from the song. This is due to him being the only songwriter listed on the track. This is also despite the fact that Summers and Copeland each came up with their guitar and drum tracks, respectively. Of course, only Summers’ guitar track and nothing from Sting or Copeland are actually heard on “I’ll Be Missing You.”
So, what kind of royalties does Sting get from “I’ll Be Missing You”? According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, Sting reportedly earns about $2,000 a day in royalties from that song alone. This figure is actually disputed by Puff Daddy, who is now known as Diddy. In April, he shared via X (formerly Twitter) that Sting actually receives $5,000 a day from the royalties from “I’ll Be Missing You.”