Music is a key part of any political rally, particularly when the candidate shows up for their speech. Sometimes, the artists behind the music played at this events aren’t too keen to be associated with these political parties or candidates and ask them to stop playing their music, just like Rolling Stones recently did to Republican candidate Donald Trump.
In a recent statement, the rock and roll legends asked Donald Trump and his team to cease all use of their music, as they haven’t given them permission to use their songs on their campaign. The Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was a popular song for his events, and during an event on Tuesday night, the campaign played “Start Me Up.”
This isn’t the first time an artist asked Trump to stop using their music; Aerosmith, Neil Young and pop singer Adele have also requested to have their music removed from the businessman’s playlist.
Political campaigns don’t need artists’ permission to play their songs at rallies as long as the political organization or the venue has gotten what’s known as a blanket license from the performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI for all the music in the licensing group’s repertoire.
But artists do have some recourse. BMI, for example, has said it has a provision in its license agreement that allows BMI songwriters or publishers to object to the use of their songs and they have the ability to exclude those songs from the blanket license.
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