Carly Simon sues Starbucks over album release
Last Updated: Monday, October 12, 2009 | 3:41 PM ET
CBC News
Singer Carly Simon is suing Starbucks, saying the coffee conglomerate didn't promote her 2008 album adequately through its now-defunct music arm.
Carly Simon's CD, This Kind of Love, was released April 29, 2008, by Starbucks' music arm, Hear Music. (Hear Music/Associated Press) Simon, whose string of hits during the 1970s and '80s included Anticipation, You're So Vain and Nobody Does It Better, filed a lawsuit in California on Friday seeking $5 million to $10 million US from Starbucks.
The Grammy winner and her attorneys said the album, a 14-track Brazilian-influenced work called This Kind of Love, wasn't offered in "a substantial number" in the coffee giant's stores in the early months following its April 2008 release.
Later, the Seattle-based company slashed the price.
"By doing so, Starbucks stigmatized Ms. Simon's album as an album that could not be sold at full price," according to the claim.
Starbucks said it met all its contractual obligations and even promoted the album in New York and Boston beyond its obligated time period.
"Unfortunately, sales continued to lag as the title received tepid response from music consumers," Starbucks said in a statement released Monday. "Other retailers faced the same fate with this CD."
Meant to be final album
This Kind of Love, which the 64-year-old singer-songwriter said was to be her last album, was also offered in other stores. According to Neilson Soundscan, 124,000 copies have been sold so far.
In an interview with the New York Times, Simon said Starbucks had approached her in 2007 to join its Hear Music label and had discussed an advance of $750,000 to $1 million. It also lured her with a marketing plan and pledges to play her album frequently.
Instead, Simon said, she got a contract for $575,000 in October 2007 after having already spent $100,000 on recording sessions.
Then, five days before her album's release on April 29, 2008, Starbucks cut back its music arm.
Simon also contends she never got the entire $575,000 she was promised.
"I refuse to go gently," she told the Times. "I've been stepped on too much in my life…. I feel that I've just about had enough."
Simon is releasing another album, a reworking of her hits, later this month on her son's label.
With files from The Associated Press
