Carly Simon Sues Starbucks

Coffee chain's failed music label bungled her album's release, singer says
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 12, 2009 5:36 PM CDT
Carly Simon Sues Starbucks
In this image released by Hear Music, Carly Simon's 2008 CD, "This Kind of Love", is shown.   (AP Photo/Hear Music, file)

Carly Simon intended the 2008 album This Kind of Love to be her swan song, and she was excited about the record company that would release it: Starbucks-owned Hear Music. The coffee chain had wooed her with a big advance and promises of high exposure in stores, but instead Starbucks all but closed its record label 5 days before the album’s release. Now, unable to retire as she planned, Simon is suing the company.

The singer blames the album’s weak sales on Starbucks' decision to dismantle the apparatus for music promotion and distribution. Her suit accuses the company of deceiving her, reports the NY Times. But for Simon, who has been sending handwritten notes to CEO Howard Schulz to express her dissatisfaction, the action is also highly personal: “I want to be somebody who faces things and who doesn’t get stepped on," she says. "I’ve been stepped on too much in my life.”
(More Carly Simon stories.)

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