Use of Band's song in campaign

[executioner]

I have a question mostly Brent could answer. The Romney Campaign was using a song at a rally from the group Silversun Pickups and they didn't seem to approve of it so they sent the Campaign a letter saying they had to stop the use of the song; Romney said ok but also went on to say that since they had a blanket license from BMI that they could legally play it in a public forum or rally. Romney's camp went on to say that they only stop playing it because the artist requested it.

My question is does the poilitical campaigns have the right to play these songs if they have the blanket license from the labels/distributors but not approval from the actual artist?

[rexreed]

Often times you don't need approval from bands to use their music- so long as you are paying.

[executioner]

It seems this is an issue every campaign cycle and in most cases the politicans usually stop playing the songs. I'm assuming that the artists are getting paid for it, but just don't want to be seen as supporting one over the other.

[rexreed]

You hit the nail on the head. Some artists oppose the use on the grounds that they do not support the candidate, others because they feel the meaning of the song is being distorted.

[brent]

I have a question mostly Brent could answer. The Romney Campaign was using a song at a rally from the group Silversun Pickups and they didn't seem to approve of it so they sent the Campaign a letter saying they had to stop the use of the song; Romney said ok but also went on to say that since they had a blanket license from BMI that they could legally play it in a public forum or rally. Romney's camp went on to say that they only stop playing it because the artist requested it.

My question is does the poilitical campaigns have the right to play these songs if they have the blanket license from the labels/distributors but not approval from the actual artist?

You guys have it...

Political groups...any group or organization that is meeting in public must pay ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc to play the music, whether the meeting is making money or not. Parody laws have protected artists as well, but guys like Weird Al have cooperated and not released songs at artist's requests, just to be nice. It was good politics for the Mormon feller to be cool and stop using the song. It was good politics for the band not to be tied to that campaign.

I think you will find most artists are liberals and not conservatives, and very few groups have asked the Democrats not to use songs in their campaigns.