Recent media reports that Lars Ulrich [Metallica], Brian May
[Queen] and Tony Iommi [Black Sabbath] will be giving away their respective
band’s discarded riffs has opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box for commentary.
It is difficult to imagine very successful artists
surrendering their copyrights without some form of financial consideration
being in play, or is this really a case of wealthy musicians giving to the next
generation?
Ulrich’s riff giveaway concept appears to revolve around
selling the song fragments by way of an Ebay-style arrangement, whilst May and
Iommi’s ideas involve mixing the unused guitar parts into another artist’s
unreleased song. Either way, the established artist will profit most favourably
from such a deal, whether it be “selling” the discarded riffs or song writing
royalties from their established and lucrative publishing deals.
I am a fan of each of these artists’ back catalogue, however
the cynic in me views this concept as a novel approach to maintaining publicity
for each band in a new world of music.
Old rockers never die, nor does their quest for public adulation…
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