In a somewhat unprecedented move, singer Carly Simon is suing Starbucks Corp. for the failure of a 2008 album that she released as part of the company’s music campaign. Simon states that the espresso heavyweight company did not put adequate marketing effort and attention as stated in their agreement, ultimately resulting in heavy losses and her album’s eventual doom.

Simon and her attorneys state that her album, the 14-track “This Kind of Love“, was not made available in a “substantial number” in Starbucks stores during the early months of its release, according to a lawsuit filed to Los Angeles County Superior Court last Friday. Additionally, the lawsuit details that when Simon’s album was finally made available in more Starbucks locations, the company then cut its album prices.

“Starbucks stigmatized Ms. Simon’s album as an album that could not be sold at full price,” according to her attorneys.

In retaliation, Starbucks has offered a statement last Monday saying that the company did not fall short of their contractual obligations, and even extended the album’s shelf tenure and promotion in places such as New York and Boston.

Starbucks, instead, implies that the album’s less-than-satisfactory mass appeal was the actual cause of the poor sales.

“Sales continued to lag as the title received tepid response from music consumers,” according to a spokesperson from Starbucks. “Other retailers faced the same fate with this CD.”

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