Music

Adele Denies Permission For Songs

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2 February 2016

By Alex Khalil

International pop star Adele has spoken out recently, saying she doesn’t want her music to be played at Donald Trump’s rallies.

This isn’t the first time he has used music without permission from musicians. He had been playing Rolling in the Deep as his ‘warm up’ music.  Apparently he’s quite a big fan.

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“Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning,” her spokesperson said.

Lawyers for Aerosmith star Steven Tyler sent Trump’s campaign a cease and desist letter in 2015, after the extremist Republican played the band’s hit single Dream On in numerous locations around the US.

In the letter, it said that the song gave a “false impression” that he endorsed Trump’s presidential campaign.

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Trump responded on Twitter by saying he had “found a better song to take its place”.  Rather eloquently, he added, “Steven Tyler got more publicity on his song request than he’s gotten in 10 years. Good for him!”

Another case occured in which he used Neil Young’s Rockin in the Free World. Young, an outspoken liberal, demanded Trump stop using the song, and declared support for Democratic Bernie Sanders instead.  The issue of songs being used without permission at political rallies and public venues has been a thorny issue for quite some time.

Technically, US copyright laws give politicians free reign over any songs they want to use, as long as the location of the rally has a public performance licence issued through a songwriters’ association such as ASCAP in the US, or PRS in the UK.

We wonder what would happen if Trump used a Taylor Swift song?  Who would win the lawsuit?

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