Who owns the song?
Seems like a silly question, right? Of course it is the songwriter. The songwriter or writers, as the case may be, own the song and should be paid for usage and airplay. End of story. Art, and artists enrich our lives and should be rewarded with royalties.
But there is one thing the artist can never own. Music is about many things, its scope of influence in our lives is hard, if not impossible, to measure. And while the artist owns the song, the artist can never own your relationship to that song. We are talking about levels of control. While the artist may control who can or can’t play that music, or use it in a commercial, or a political campaign, the artist does not have complete control over that song in the larger sense.
Once an artist releases a song into the atmosphere the song takes on a life of its own. For when the listener is stirred by a particular recording or performance it has begun an interactive relationship that involves a person the artist may never know.
Seems like a silly question, right? Of course it is the songwriter. The songwriter or writers, as the case may be, own the song and should be paid for usage and airplay. End of story. Art, and artists enrich our lives and should be rewarded with royalties.
But there is one thing the artist can never own. Music is about many things, its scope of influence in our lives is hard, if not impossible, to measure. And while the artist owns the song, the artist can never own your relationship to that song. We are talking about levels of control. While the artist may control who can or can’t play that music, or use it in a commercial, or a political campaign, the artist does not have complete control over that song in the larger sense.
Once an artist releases a song into the atmosphere the song takes on a life of its own. For when the listener is stirred by a particular recording or performance it has begun an interactive relationship that involves a person the artist may never know.
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