will.i.am
When will.i.am appeared on the NBC TV show Songland, he made a comment that illuminates exactly why music copyright matters to artists and songwriters.
Songland features undiscovered songwriters pitching their original creations to established star recording artists plus a panel of chart-topping music producers (Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean, and Shane McAnally), in the hope of creating a music collaboration to turbo-charge their careers.
The star artist chooses their three favourite songs to take to the next level with each of the producers, where the song is improved and tailored to suit the artist, who finally select one winning song to record and release worldwide.
will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, the guest star of this particular show and a successful recording artist. songwriter, and music producer in his own right, was in conversation with one of the songwriters about what changes could be made to their song, and said "You know, this is house music."
The songwriter looked a little uncertain, believing that they were being asked to re-work their song into something suitable for the dance music genre.
"No," will.i.am explained, "when this song is released, you'll be able to buy a house with the money you make."
A song copyright (the ownership right granted when you create a song either alone or with others) is legally referred to as "intellectual property", which highlights that a song is equivalent to physical property such as a house in the eyes of its owner - it's a possession / asset that is very important and worth a lot of money, it just happens to be intangible rather than bricks and mortar.
The "property" analogy extends further than monetary value - each song is a culmination of the artist / writers experiences, hard work, and talent, and can also be viewed as very important to them creatively and emotionally, a little like a home compared to a house.
So if you are a song owner, someone using your song without permission is like a stranger staying in your home without asking you or paying for the privilege.
You would instinctively know that the person using your home should have asked for your permission before doing so (or you would simply call in the police to evict them and then seek some damages to recompense you).
Assuming you were happy for them to use your home like that, you would definitely want them to pay you a reasonable sum of money for the use of your property.
The bigger and more well known your home is, the more rental you would expect from it, and you would perhaps like to know more about the people who were going to stay and what they would be doing there, so you could decline some renters you didn't want, for whatever reason you wish.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift had a taste of something similar when Scott Borchetta, the owner of her first record label Big Machine, sold his company - and with it the master recordings of her first six studio albums. Ultimately, as our blog on the topic explains, Taylor then gave a masterclass on the value of publishing rights as she undertook a project to re-record and release the 'Taylor's Version's of the albums, delighting her fans and devaluing the original sold master tapes in the process.
Zara Larsson
Swedish pop star Zara Larsson was also in a similar situation - in 2022 Ola Håkansson, the head of her record label with whom she had all her early hits, decided he wanted to retire and sell his record label.
Fortunately for Zara, Håkansson learned from Taylor Swift's situation, and the first person he approached about buying the masters was Zara herself.
Her interview comments on the subject highlighted exactly how much it means to her personally:
"I feel like I'm a boss lady, I feel grown, and I feel like I'm in control over what I do in a different way."
After acquiring the rights to her songs, it made "perfect sense" to also establish her own record label - Sommer House - which distributes its releases through a deal with Sony Music.
Conclusion
Ownership of, and control over, their music is a big deal for recording artists and songwriters - similar to how you'd feel about your home.
The analogy also stretches even further.
Some people just wouldn't want people staying in their home no matter what price they could get for it. And if you did want to allow people to stay in your home, you'd probably sign up to AirBnB to show people that you are open to them using it and make the whole process easy.
Some recording artists and songwriters just don't want their music used by others, full stop. But those that do use ClicknClear in a very similar way to AirBnB, to show sports and performing arts participants that they are open to allowing their songs to be used in routines and want to make the process of securing a license to do so as easy as possible.
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