Blog: Court rules you must listen to the rubbish songs as well
Thursday 11th March 2010, 1:00PM GMT.
Blog: Millions of music lovers were left reeling today after a High Court judge ruled they could no longer download “just the good songs” from online music retailers and must in future download the entire album – even if there’s only a few good songs on it.
The decision came after Pink Floyd succesfully stopped their record label selling single downloads from their concept albums because it breached their artistic integrity.
In the case of Pink Floyd album The Wall, fans will no longer be able to download only the good ones, such as Goodbye Blue Sky and Another Brick in the Wall, but will be forced to listen to all the really depressing stuff as well. Even that one about the worms.
A spokesman for the music industry said several bands now planned to challenge the ‘skip track’ function on CD players.
“It’s simply not fair that people can buy, say, a copy of The Beatles’ Revolver album or Sergeant Pepper and completely ignore ‘the George one’,” the spokesman added.
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The Court did not make that ruling.
The Court examined the specific details of the contract between Pink Floyd and their recod label. Floyd had a contractual term that their music was only able to be sold in album form. The court simply interpreted that clause, made in pre MP3 days, and applied it to downloads.
The ruling is specific to Pink Floyd. It may apply to others with similar contractual terms.
To suggest as this piece does that it applies to all on-line music sales is misleading and wrong
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Um, Mr Barrington-Black? It’s supposed to be a light-hearted blog hinting in a jokey tone of how ridiculous things could become. I don’t think the writer actually meant you to believe that lawyers would look to get the ‘skip track’ button banned on CD players!
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