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Re: Slash playing Guns N Roses songs
Hi everyone !
I was just wondering how come Slash still can play GNR songs live though Axl's got all the royalties and rights for what they wrote at the time?
Thanks !
I don't know the exact law for it, but anyone can play what they want on stage. I could go and play the entire Beatles catalog if I wanted to. It's only when you release stuff that rights and royalties come into it.
Re: Slash playing Guns N Roses songs
Thanks for your answer polluxlm
That's what I was thinking before I read on wikipedia (I know, not always reliable but still...) the following sentence :
"Permission to publicly perform a song must be obtained from the copyright holder or a collective rights organization"
Then I thought if Slash needed permission from Axl, knowing their relationship I bet he wouldn't have gotten it...
- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: Slash playing Guns N Roses songs
I also am not 100% on the law, but I think the bolded part:
That's what I was thinking before I read on wikipedia (I know, not always reliable but still...) the following sentence :
"Permission to publicly perform a song must be obtained from the copyright holder or a collective rights organization"
means like ASCAP or BMI or something.. Polluxum your Beatles analogy isn't entirely true. You couldn't create a Broadway show based around people singing Beatles tunes, without paying extreme royalties. So it's not really any different (legally) if your only playing to 500 people or whatever. Now granted if your playing a pub & 20 people are there then yeah, you'd get away with it. But the nugget of truth in the law is there that in theory you shouldn't be without paying royalties.
Re: Slash playing Guns N Roses songs
I also am not 100% on the law, but I think the bolded part:
SandraDee wrote:That's what I was thinking before I read on wikipedia (I know, not always reliable but still...) the following sentence :
"Permission to publicly perform a song must be obtained from the copyright holder or a collective rights organization"means like ASCAP or BMI or something.. Polluxum your Beatles analogy isn't entirely true. You couldn't create a Broadway show based around people singing Beatles tunes, without paying extreme royalties. So it's not really any different (legally) if your only playing to 500 people or whatever. Now granted if your playing a pub & 20 people are there then yeah, you'd get away with it. But the nugget of truth in the law is there that in theory you shouldn't be without paying royalties.
But what about some big Metallica tour or whatever, and they perform cover songs? Surely they don't have to get permission for this?
I did a short search and it seems you are right in that small pubs and bands "get away with" something that might not strictly be legal, but that begs the question of why Axl doesn't raise a stink here? Since he wrote most of these lyrics.
Re: Slash playing Guns N Roses songs
But what about some big Metallica tour or whatever, and they perform cover songs? Surely they don't have to get permission for this?
I did a short search and it seems you are right in that small pubs and bands "get away with" something that might not strictly be legal, but that begs the question of why Axl doesn't raise a stink here? Since he wrote most of these lyrics.
I think they belong or pay a flat rate to the music companies. I think larger cover bands either also pay these fees, or the larger clubs need to pay some sort of royalty to host cover bands. Something like that. But you don't really pay per song, you just pay for the event & then every month or something it gets divvyed up to artists based on the most popular songs. Something like that.
Re: Slash playing Guns N Roses songs
You can't give away copyright, it is always intrinsically linked to the original author(s). You can license someone else to use/perform/resell/manage/make profit from your copyrighted material, but the author always retains performance and recording rights as well. I believe the way copyright registration is set up it always covers the whole song, it does not provide a way of assigning copyright to specific persons for specific parts or sections (so, for the AFD stuff for example, all then-members are authors of those entire songs).
So, there is nothing Axl can do to keep Slash (or Izzy, Duff, Bucket, Robin, Steven, ...) from performing or 'covering' songs that they have writing credits for.
- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: Slash playing Guns N Roses songs
Also, who is Axl to tell people they can't cover his songs? Name a song that Axl hasn't covered!
