Weird Al’s “You’re Pitiful” Blocked by Atlantic Records; Plus How Little He Gets from iTunes
Also check out some of the stuff regarding Weird Al Yankovic, who I assume is no stranger to parody/copyright conflicts:
Weird Al’s “You’re Pitiful,” a parody of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful,” is being blocked by Atlantic Records.
According to Yankovic, Blunt himself gave his blessing to a song called “You’re Pitiful” (audio), which was to appear on Yankovic’s now-finished but as-yet-unreleased new album. But after Yankovic finished recording the parody, Atlantic Records, Blunt’s label, told Yankovic that he couldn’t release “You’re Pitiful.” Though Yankovic has encountered resistance from artists before — after a miscommunication involving permissions, Coolio publicly objected to a released parody of “Gangsta’s Paradise,” while Prince has always turned down Yankovic’s requests to parody his hits — he says this is the first time a label has stepped in to squash the release of one of his parodies.
. . .
“The legality in this case is somewhat moot,” Yankovic writes when contacted via e-mail. “James Blunt could still let me put it on my album if he really wanted to, but he obviously doesn’t want to alienate his own record company… and my label could release the parody without Atlantic’s blessing, but they don’t really want to go to war with another label over this. So really, it’s more of a political matter than a legal matter.”
Somewhat related, there’s a good conversation about Weird Al and an off-hand comment he made about how he gets more money from selling CDs than from iTunes downloads:
Weird Al and a Messed Up iTunes Deal
Apparently Apples takes a 34 or 35 cent cut off of every $1 download; then the record label takes its bite; and then the artist gets what’s left.
I wouldn’t take Weird Al’s experience as representative of the industry; everything is so deal-specific and confidential.