‘My Sharona’ Drummer — Estate Sues Capitol Records Over iTunes $$$

Music doesn’t pay like it used to — at least according to the sister of deceased Knack drummer Bruce Gary … who is now suing Capitol Records, claiming the company is screwing her out of hard-earned digital download money.

Gary’s sister — Felice Catena — inherited the rights to Bruce’s music after he passed away in 2006.

Now, she’s filed a lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court, claiming Capitol is shafting her … paying only a teensy-weensy fraction of what she’s owed on download proceeds for Knack hits like “My Sharona” and “Good Girls Don’t.”

According to the complaint, Capitol owes Catena not 12% … not 25% … but 50% of net receipts from sales of his music by iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, and others.

You see, back in the day — recording contracts didn’t contain provisions for digital downloads (obviously) … so once iTunes came around, it wasn’t clear whether to pay the artist their sale fee (around 12%-18%) or their licensing fee (around 50%).

Felice claims sales through digital distributors are actually licenses — and she should be paid accordingly. Eminem infamously sued his record label for the same thing back in 2007 … and won.

Good news for Ms. Catena.