Suppose you missed all this, but no, that'd be public performance, and you gotta pay licensing fees to the artist/label/song writer. ASCAP, gotta love them.
Brooks & Dunn does not want Obama to use their songs and Heart and Van Halen does not want McCain to use their songs.
Both candidates should tell these Has Beens to Stfu and play the music they want.
If you write a song and sign with ASCAP/BMI, you will in theory get some money every time someone performs your song publicly, but you will give up authority to decide under what circumstances it may be used.
If you do not sign with ASCAP/BMI, you will retain the right to decide under what circumstances, if any, your song may be performed and what royalties are required to play it. In practice, your song is almost guaranteed to be played in countless venues without permission or payment; nonetheless, you would retain the right to forbid its use at something like the DNC or RNC.
Isn’t it interesting that the Van Halens are unable to see the irony in all of this. They are obsessed with property rights and support candidates whose very intent and agenda is to eliminate them. Give them their thirty pieces of silver and tell them to perform an unnatural act with themselves.
Sammy is OK in my book.