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Wednesday, November 06, 2019
Spinal Tap Creators and Universal Music Settle Copyright Dispute
Variety: Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Rob Reiner, the creators of the iconic mockumentary film This is Spinal Tap, have resolved their dispute with Universal Music Group regarding the film’s soundtrack recordings.
I’m amazed that the music from This is Spinal Tap actually belongs to the characters in the movie. I guess I sort of assumed that they were simply cast in the part and had the entire script handed to them. That’s good that the artists are being paid compensation for not having been paid royalties. Especially in this day and age, music ownership is a difficult thing. Spotify pays fractions of a cent for each play, and many people aren’t buying albums. It’s interesting how the business model has flipped from advertising the album with the tour to advertising the tour with the album. The thing that has been making money is flipped. It is obvious that they didn’t only get less than $100 in royalties over the past 10 years. The artists are certainly requesting a lot of money as compensation, so I guess one could argue that they don’t deserve $125 Million dollars in damages.
1 comment:
I’m amazed that the music from This is Spinal Tap actually belongs to the characters in the movie. I guess I sort of assumed that they were simply cast in the part and had the entire script handed to them. That’s good that the artists are being paid compensation for not having been paid royalties. Especially in this day and age, music ownership is a difficult thing. Spotify pays fractions of a cent for each play, and many people aren’t buying albums. It’s interesting how the business model has flipped from advertising the album with the tour to advertising the tour with the album. The thing that has been making money is flipped. It is obvious that they didn’t only get less than $100 in royalties over the past 10 years. The artists are certainly requesting a lot of money as compensation, so I guess one could argue that they don’t deserve $125 Million dollars in damages.
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