Willy Nilly, Ageing Rocker Gets With It

Sir Cliff Richard, Tony's bosom pal, was one of the leading, er, lights in the effort to extend the sound copyright to a mere 95 years, instead of the current 50. Happily, that failed, but it's nonetheless surprising to see the music of the said musical knight being used for a nice bit of innovative thinking from EMI, one of the few music companies that seems to get it:

Benefiting from one of the first new digital directions from the new owners of EMI, from today, his latest album Love, The Album, goes for sale via online pre-order at £7.99 - with the price dropping the more fans make the purchase. The collection has a floor minimum of £3.99 and, no matter when a customer pre-ordered, they'll only pay the lowest final price.

The Same Old Song

Sigh, the usual idiocies:

UK copyright laws should be extended to prevent musicians from missing out on royalties in later life, MPs have said.

I hate to break this to you chaps, but royalties are there to encourage the creation of new songs, not reward you for ones you have already written.

The killer, though, is the following:

"Given the strength and importance of the creative industries in the UK, it seems extraordinary that the protection of intellectual property rights should be weaker here than in many other countries whose creative industries are less successful," the report said.

Well, you know, maybe it's precisely because the term is shorter here that people have more incentive to write new songs. Extend the term, and they have less incentive to compose, leading to less creativity. Simple, really, when you understand that copyright is a quid pro quo, not a gold-plated pension for ageing rockers.