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The American Federation of Musicians has filed a federal lawsuit against American Idol Productions Inc. and its subsidiary Tick Tock Productions Inc., claiming the producers re-record the music for broadcasts of the American Idol Rewind syndication program in order to screw them out of royalties.

The producers are required to pay 75 percent of scale to musicians who appear in the original show and rehearsals, plus 10 percent of that pay to a union pension fund, with decreasing percentages for each rebroadcast, according to court papers.

In 2007, the producers started cutting out the show's soundtrack and using different musicians to re-record new music for the past-season highlights show "American Idol Rewind," the lawsuit said.

The union was not informed of the recording, according to court papers.