[WOBBLY BOB]

Same reason staff don’t sing “Happy Birthday” for patrons at Applebees and the like.

They would go to Happy Birthday jail.

[smokingfrog]

Those people are delusional. If you’re not performing a song for a paid audience or to make a sound recording for sale it shouldn’t matter.

[dr_who]

Love those unions.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I wonder what they get for the Horst Wessel Lied?

[Voltage]

The answer, at least in the US, is to only sing songs published before 1923. That includes more Christmas songs than you could possibly ever want. In Germany the copyright laws are different, a song goes into the public domain 70 years after the death of the composer. So they also have a huge number of public domain songs available.

Yes it is quite annoying, but the solution, until laws change, is simple: Use public domain music and tell the copyright holders to spend their time somewhere else.

[Berlin_Freeper]

I invent a new song just about every other day for my 15 month old.

Today it was:

The Cookie Bear is here today!
The Cookie Bear is here to play!
The Cookie Bear!
The Cookie Bear!
The Cookie Bear!

That's it, i stopped to have cookies.
I'll finish it tomorrow (the song and the box of cookies).

[Above My Pay Grade]

How long before they demand every individual list and pay royalties on every copyrighted song they sing in the shower?

At some point the music industry is going to infuriate the public so much with this nonsense that copyright protection will be rolled back or repealed.

Personally, I think all non-commercial use of songs should be considered fair use. I’m not talking about mass file sharing of digital music, but singing a copyrighted song at a party or school event should be free.

[righttackle44]

Paritaetischer Wohlfahrtsverband Hamburg

What does this mean? The possibilities are sort of frightening.

[ReignOfError]

I’m gonna take the unpopular position on this. Blanket licenses for schools are not onerous — I’d estimate for a preschool it would be less than $100 a year. Elementary schools already pay license fees.

The schools get value from that music. Kids — and more importantly, the parents who pay the fees — like sing-alongs that include recognizable songs instead of being limited to public-domain ones. If one school has a better musical selection than another, that’s going to provide a competitive advantage.

I’m not familiar with GEMA, but in the US, ASCAP passes on 89% of that money to copyright holders, i.e. songwriters. If I wrote a song that was used by thousands of preschools, especially the for-profit ones, as part of the service they provide, I’d certainly think it reasonable that I make a few bucks from it, and that the folks who perform it kick in a few pennies.

[LibWhacker]

Wow, thanks for your comments. Didn’t know there was any justification for this stuff, but this thread has convinced me otherwise. Still... Has the music industry gone after small operators of day care centers, say? Or after 16-year-old babysitters? Seems like a slippery slope.

[Paleo Conservative]

Pop got the weasels.