For Fans of IP Law and 80s Music

My favorite band, Squeeze, found themselves in an all-too-familiar situation:  they recorded lots of awesome tunes -- one of them (Tempted) something of a generational anthem -- but they didn't own them.  So when a car company or a TV show wanted to use one of those tunes, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford (the songwriting team) had no say in the matter, and saw little of the proceeds.

They came up with a clever way of solving the problem:  they went back into the studio and (often using their original equipment) re-recorded their hits, trying to make them sound as much like the originals as possible.  The result:  an album of Squeeze's hits that the band actually owns, cleverly called "Spot the Difference."  Now, when someone wants to use a Squeeze tune, they'll talk to Difford and Tilbrook rather than a record label.

Comments

[ugg store]

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.so,do you like it, too?

[Ani]

ugg store is dead on, as always. But I don't get the clever solution. If someone wants to use a Squeeze song, don't they retain the option of using one of initially recorded ones, and continuing to avoid Difford and Tilbrook? And wouldn't D&T's marginal control have increased if they instead composed and released superior new material that wasn't similar to material outside their control?

[Eric Muller]

I would imagine that Difford and Tilbrook plan to undersell the owners of the original recordings. Otherwise, as you say, there's little point in the thing, unless perhaps, I suppose, Difford and Tilbrook are willing to sell the new recordings for uses that the owners of the original recordings would not. (That seems quite unlikely, though.)

Difford and Tilbrook do continue to compose and release new material, but like most acts "past their prime," they have little chance of that material's ever achieving anything like the popularity of the material from their higher-flying, younger years, even if it is musically superior.