Sony Music Entertainment has been hit with a lawsuit from the creator of the Nickelodeon series Big Time Rush, who says the label “concocted a bad faith entity shell game” to cut him out of touring profits when the TV show’s eponymous boy band reunited four years ago.
Scott Fellows, who created the hit show about a fictional boy band that ran on Nickelodeon from 2009 to 2013, brings a series of breach of contract claims against Sony in the federal court lawsuit filed Thursday (July 3).
During the show’s heyday, the real-life members of Big Time Rush released music and toured under a deal with Sony Music. According to Fellows’ lawsuit, he received contractual payments amounting to 3.75% of the band’s touring revenue until its members went their separate ways in 2014.
As stated in the complaint, when Big Time Rush reunited in 2021, the group struck a deal to go independent from Nickelodeon and Sony Music. In terms of the deal not previously shared publicly, the lawsuit reveals that the band licensed its trademarks and past music from Sony and Nickelodeon in exchange for 10% of future revenues.
But as Fellows’ attorneys allege in the lawsuit, Sony “restructured its inter-company arrangements to cheat and cut plaintiffs out of their share of the tour revenues” by contracting directly with the members of Big Time Rush rather than going through a wholly owned subsidiary that the label previously used, Big Time Rush Touring LLC. Because Fellows’ initial agreement was with the LLC, he says his rights to 3.75% of touring revenue were eliminated by the restructuring.
“It is apparent that Sony Music deliberately acted to cut Fellows off from his contractual rights,” the lawsuit claims.
Fellows is now seeking to recoup his cut of Big Time Rush’s 2022 reunion tour, as well as the band’s In Real Life World Tour that’s scheduled to kick off on Wednesday (July 9). The lawsuit does not specify a dollar amount but says that Sony has “generated substantial revenues” from the band’s live shows.
Sony Music did not return a request for comment on Monday (July 7). A rep for Big Time Rush, which is not named in the lawsuit nor accused of any wrongdoing, also did not return a request for comment.