Tim McGraw Sued By Curb Records

Most every musician has the dream of landing a major record deal, which usually leads to radio airplay, and in some cases the development of a superstar. Tim McGraw was one of those lucky musicians who signed with a major record label in 1992.  Now, after twenty two No. 1 hits with Curb Records, he's being sued by the label.

If you've been following Tim McGraw's career, you may have seen this coming.  McGraw has made it known that he was displeased with Curb Records releasing so many 'Greatest Hits' packages, when he wanted to release new music.  In all, Curb has released four 'greatest hits' packages, including the most recent 'Number-Ones' album. 

The country superstar feels like this kind of album marketing and production is "taking advantage of the fans."  If you've ever bought a 'Greatest Hits' album, just to get the one or two new tracks that are newly released, you know exactly what he's talking about.  In most cases the fans have all the hits from the previous albums, but are forced into buying them all again, just to get the new songs.

Now, why is Tim being sued? Billboard.com reports:

Curb Records filed a breach-of-contract suit in Davidson County Chancery Court against Tim McGraw in relation to McGraw's recording agreement with the label.

At issue is what's referred to as the 12 masters for the "Emotional Traffic" album that McGraw delivered to Curb in October of last year. Curb alleges in the complaint, which was obtained by Billboard, that McGraw recorded the album too early prior to its delivery "in a transparent tactic to attempt to fulfill his contractual recording commitment to Curb prematurely in breach of the recording agreement."

Curb's position in the suit is that McGraw's recordings must be "topical and new" and that the artist had agreed that each new album would be recorded "no earlier than 12 months and no later than 18 months" following the delivery of the previous album. The suit alleges McGraw began recording "Emotional Traffic" tracks "in 2008 or before," prior to the allowable period under contract, according to Curb.

Last June, Tim McGraw actually told some industry professionals that he was ready for a change and that he would be recording his last album for Curb. Now, it looks like Curb is ready to end their relationship early with Tim McGraw, with a lawsuit!

It's a tough position for any artist to find themsleves, considering without Curb Records we probably would have never heard of Tim McGraw. How do you feel about this situation?