TV Program I Am a Singer Suspected of Infringement for Covering Songs by Queen

Singer

The Sprint Race for Champion Singer broadcasted at the evening of April 5, 2019 contributed to heating the TV program I Am a Singer (refer to Singer hereafter) which was soon suspected of infringing a number of songs sung by several music critics. Later on April 6, Sony/ATV Music Publishing issued an announcement via its official Weibo saying that: “the four music works used by Singer all belong to our company. Up to this moment, we never issued any permission of authorization to the TV program I Am a Singer operated by Hunan TV. Original music works are regarded as the foundation and dynamic power for the music industry, whose legitimate interests and rights shall be respected and protected.” No response raised by the program until the press time of this article.

The four mentioned songs by Sony/ATV Music Publishing are Love of My Life, We Will Rock You, Bohemian Rhapsody and We are the Champion, which were performed by the Super Vocal Group and Dimash Kudaibergen at that time, while the band Queen owns the original. Two of the mentioned are selected in the soundtracks for the promising 2019 Oscar Award film Bohemian Rhapsody.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC is an international music publishing company co-founded by the American company Sony Music Entertainment, the Japanese company Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) and Michael Jackson which is in possession of the copyrights of lyrics and melodies by several top artists including the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Bob Dylan. The company brought artists’ copyright like Queen, Sting and Amy Winehouse into its library after purchasing EMI Music Publishing on the summer of 2012.

“The right of adaptation is a necessary requirement for re-composing and re-performing on any program which should be authorized by rights holders for the demos. Publishing companies are extremely prudent on those soundtracks of IP level, setting high thresholds to adaption for the great expense of authorization and strict requirements for  integrity.” thought by Zou Xiaoying, a music commentator who thinks it is hard to get the rights of adaption for the mentioned songs.

April 8, 2019

Source: Beijing Youth Daily

Photo from: 6199pic.com