Frank Zappa's Wife Continues To Claim Cover Bands Can't Play His Music (Even Though They Can)

from the someone-teach-her-copyright-law dept

We recently posted about Frank Zappa's early recognition of where the music industry was heading, with fans taping and sharing music. That story got a lot of attention, but we'd forgotten how incredibly protective Frank's widow Gail has become of Zappa's own music. In the past, she's tried (and failed) to stop a music festival of Zappa's music called Zappanale, and Karl alerts us to the fact that she's been going around threatening any cover band who doesn't agree to pay up. This is, as any copyright lawyer will tell you, ridiculous. So long as the venue where the music is being played has paid its blanket licensing fee, then anyone can play whatever music they want there. Many musicians (and their widows, apparently) falsely believe that copyright allows you to completely control all uses of your work, but that's simply not true. And, it's a shame that Zappa's "legacy" is being treated this way, whereby people are being told that simply playing and sharing Zappa's music is somehow illegal without first paying up to the Zappa family.

Filed Under: copyright, cover bands, frank zappa, gail zappa

Removing Songs From iTunes A Great Way To Help Cover Bands

from the as-for-yourself?-not-so-clear... dept

A few weeks ago, we noted that some record labels were choosing to wait until a song had become popular to remove it from iTunes on the highly questionable theory that this would encourage fans to buy the full CD instead of just buying a single track. This seems quite unlikely (more likely is that people will simply go pirate the one track). However, the LA Times notes that in the case of the band the was discussed in the initial article, the removal of the official song has proven a boost to cover bands that have stepped in to fill the void. Even if the tracks aren't that good, a lot more people are buying them since they can't find the original. That's probably not what the record label intended when it pulled the songs from iTunes, but if there's one thing the recording industry has shown over and over again for years is that it has trouble figuring out how the market will react to its more braindead moves.

Filed Under: cover bands, itunes, music