You buy a song and you own the right to play it personally. If your business plays it publicly for profit then you owe extra royalties. It has always worked this way. Does nobody understand the difference?
Aretha had a big hit off of one of Reddings songs as well, may have been respect, not sure bit saw a documentary once and he saw her sing it and turned to his manager and said "she just stole my song"
Sure, if you advertise and say " come to my bar and hear Abbey Road" maybe. If you say come to my bar and enjoy $1.50 long necks $2 wells and half off pool from 5-9 then clearly you are not advertising nor making money off of whatever is playing in the background and you don't owe anyone a god damned thing.
I understand your argument. Martin and you would go pages on that. The law is written as you state it. I just disagree with the principal. If I buy it then it is mine.
Eric Clapton's You Are So Beautiful is a popular wedding song. I have been to several weddings where it was played and now they are all divorced. Maybe they should play Stand By Your Man
