Don't Play My Song, Dude!

Good lord, another whining 'artist' has sent a "cease and desist" order to a Republican presidential candidate to stop playing one of their songs at a campaign event. The Romney campaign insists the song was played inadvertently and agreed not to play it again. The band is called "Silversun Pickups" and the dreadful song in question is called "Panic Switch". Despite its monumental irrelevance, the story's gotten about as much coverage in the Times as the recent shooting at the Family Research Council office.

These loser, whiny acts rely on blanket copyright licenses to get their music played. Venues don't seek permission from each individual act to play their music, of course - they pay for blanket licenses to play whatever music is covered under the licenses - and three of these (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC) cover just about everything. That's what political campaigns do as well. So in taking advantage of these licenses, an act has no right to dictate what a campaign can play and what it can't - sure, the campaign cannot use your song to actually sell its message - but they can play whatever they want as warmup/backup music at an event - even sodden, minor-key bores as this.

But we are, after all, living right now in The Age of Whining.