These butchered songs used in ads

deefstes

I can't be the only one who finds these bad remakes of songs used in ads immensely annoying. I'm referring of course to the Hippo ads with their butchered version of "We Built This City" or Cybersmart with their butchered version of "Summer of '69" or "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Really, I've gotten to the point where I change the radio station or turn the radio off when one of those come on.

And somewhere in some marketing company there is some big wig and his team who thinks they've churned out an absolute humdinger and they probably even sing along when the song ad airs on the radio. ??? How different people are. I get close to vomiting when those ads air.

I'm curious though, are these companies required to pay royalties to the likes of Bryan Adams, U2 and Starship for using those songs? I wonder if Bryan Adams even knows how Cybersmart have tied his song down and violated it?

Squonk

Don't mind those songs being butchered ?

At least 2 of them are on my top ten list of the worst songs of all time ?

I think Bryan Adams has about 5 on the list. Maybe Bryan should be paying Cybersmart for beefing up his songs. ?

deefstes

Squonk wrote: Don't mind those songs being butchered ?

At least 2 of them are on my top ten list of the worst songs of all time ?

I think Bryan Adams has about 5 on the list. Maybe Bryan should be paying Cybersmart for beefing up his songs. ?

LOL ?

Bob-Dubery

It partly depends on who recorded the piece. The Stones usually don't allow their material to be used in adverts, soundtracks and so on. But if you can find a bunch of session musicians who sound close to the Stones and get them to record, say, "Paint It Black" then you are not using a Stones recording (and you can prove it) so you owe nothing on that score.

Some artists have lost control of their copyrights and may not have much say over usage - though they may get royalties (depending on what was sold and the nature of the deal).

Some artists have a large degree of control over their compositions, and it may be that permission must be sought before a composition may used. My understanding there is that the artist has the prerogative to refuse but that this is unusual. Exceptions might be things like a vegetarian artist refusing use in a McDonald's advert, or an artist refusing to allow a song to be used in a political campaign for a party they don't approve of (see John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen).

Others may not mind as long as the money comes in.

There's various combinations of ownership and permissions, and so no one rule. Leave it to the lawyers, or adopt the old Led Zeppelin approach of hoping nobody notices.

It needn't necessarily be an artistic death. Nick Drake's estate allowed VW to use Nick's song "Pink Moon" in an ad (the advertising agency had initially wanted to use some other tune by some other artist but could not get permission). That ad became a big boost for awareness of Drake's work. Radio stations started getting enquiries about "that song in the new VW advert" and the song started getting attention and airplay and the album finally started selling.

Bob-Dubery

Parodies can get nixed. Many years ago there was a desire to use "Asshole From el Paso" in a movie. The song is a parody of Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee". The publishing company eventually said no to the movie company on the grounds that Haggard's mother didn't approve of the profanity in the revised lyrics. Presumably they still had control of the melody.

Bob-Dubery

BTW, am I the only one who thinks the jingle that Standard Bank have been using sounds rather too much like the Kinks "Sunny Afternoon?"

Reinhard

If they aren't paying rolyalties I hope they get sued for those annoying ads.

Bob I REALLY hate that Std Bank jingle lol