Elvis songwriter backs PRS on Google

11:35 | Wednesday April 15, 2009

The founder of MCS Music and the first British composer to be recorded by Elvis Presley says,

“Hundreds of major web sites use our music as their stock-in-trade in order to attract traffic to boost advertising revenue. What other business could persuade their suppliers to give them their stock for nothing?”

Producer Pete Waterman recently attacked Google for only paying him £11 for using Rick Astley’s music and the former Basca chairman joins the chorus of criticism. He adds, “If unchecked, (Google and similar sites will) devalue our copyright to the point where no creators can make a living. We all give PRS for Music a mandate to look after our performing right for us. Cynical corporate negotiation on the scale of Google/YouTube makes their work impossibly difficult and threatens the very existence of the creative music community.”

Rolf Harris and Guy Fletcher have recently partnered on a musical download called Can You Tell What it is Yet, which celebrates Harris’ colourful life and career.