Kenny Rogers Sues Capitol Records

Kenny Rogers is suing Capitol Records in federal court. The country legend is accusing his longtime label of deliberately misleading him and other artists about payments owed to them for online music sales, The Tennessean reports. The lawsuit was filed in Nashville on Monday (Feb. 13), and does not specify a dollar amount.

'The Gambler' singer alleges breach of contract for underpayments on digital song royalties spanning nearly 30 years. "We are being regularly contacted by artists who are raising this issue with us, and we are evaluating their contracts on a case-by-case basis," Nashville-based attorney Richard Busch, who filed the suit, told the newspaper. He added that it's likely more cases will come to fruition.

According to Billboard, the 73-year-old singer signed a recording contract with Capitol Records predecessor, United Artists, in 1975. A new agreement was drawn up with Capitol in 1977, which reads, "With respect to sales throughout the world of pre-recorded magnetic tapes and all other non-disc records, the royalty shall be one-half of company's net royalties from each source."

Kenny is also suing Capitol Records in excess of $400,000, which he claims that the label underpaid him due to various accounting errors. The dispute between the parties has apparently been going on since 2007, and the court date is scheduled for May 21.

The case does have some precedence, though. In 2011, Eminem and his producers, F.B.T. Productions, filed a similar suit noting that they were deliberately underpaid when the rapper's label classified digital downloads as a 'sale' instead of a 'license.' The paper cites the distinction between the two words to mean that when a 'license' is issued there is normally a 50/50 split of profits, but when it is 'sold' the artist gets a small percentage.

California courts ruled in the Eminem case last year that the online sale of music was 'licensed.' However, the Detroit native is waiting until April to before a Los Angeles court will decide the total amount that is owed by Universal Music Group.

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