Occasionally you come across articles and news stories that really make you think about what you do and why you do it.  Sometimes you come across articles that make your blood boil.  Thanks to Elliott, yesterday I came across an article that managed to do both.  The story in question (Found on The Gen at thegen.org.uk/) focuses on the sale of ‘patriotic’ compilation CDs by the British National Party.   The issue lies in the fact that the BNP have been able to produce and put on sale compilations of various bands music without the prior consent of the artists.  Normally, this is not an issue – someone wants to put a compilation together, the artists involved all get a nice slice of the profits and everyone goes home happy.  However, does this not in fact simply point to the unfortunate truth that the individual artists involved have, as stated by the MU, a “low level of moral rights” and extremely limited control over who may use their music – from Levi wanting to sell jeans to the BNP wanting to sell hate. 

Indeed, it is the Musicians Union (MU) and the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) who are leading the fight in this area, and whom certainly deserve our support.  I feel it is the right and responsibility of every musician to be able to ensure that their music does not get used in such a fashion without their prior consent.   However, I do not believe that a blanket ruling stating that no political party may use music without the consent of the artist would go far enough.  This issue really centres on just what rights we have to control the use of our own image and our own music.  Unfortunately, I feel that whilst there is still money to be squeezed from an artist they will never enjoy any major degree of editorial control.


Although I do not want this thread to be centred on the BNP rather than musicians rights, fascism is a deplorable, odious evil that is currently a very real threat in this country.  This in mind, I would urge you to swing by www.uaf.org.uk on your way out, and also to my blog (which will be up this afternoon) at www.andymackin.com which will point you in the direction of more anti-BNP and anti-fascist links.


Love Music, Hate Racism.