The multi-million dollar award issued against Katy Perry for
copyright infringement in her chart-topping hit “Dark
Horse” now has many music artists on edge. With the spotlight
now on legal issues in the music scene, music artists need to
become aware of legal pitfalls which could waylay their best-laid
plans.
“Us against the world”
Starting out, most artists have limited repertoires of original
works and usually perform covers of famous hits to build a
following. Many, however, do not realise that they need to obtain
licences from collecting societies to perform cover songs each time
they perform a live gig or post a video on social media
platforms.
Even after having created their own original compositions, music
artists may find out the hard way that their signature song is not
as 'original' as they think. Sobering lessons on copyright
infringement abound, from the sampling of a few bars of music in
The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony, "subconscious
copying" in
