Domino effect boosts music industry


A splendid piece of music trivia in yesterday's Guardian Financial section about Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), the organisation that collects music licensing revenues in the UK ~ 'PPL was formed by EMI and Decca in 1934 after a test case brought against a Bristol coffee shop for playing a record of French composer Auber's Overture, The Black Domino, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, without consent. The case set a precedent that the owners of sound recordings should be paid for the broadcasting and public performance of their copyrights'.

Daniel Auber was a French composer who lived from 1782 to 1871, and his opéra comique The Black Domino (Le domino noir) was his most successful work. There was a fine recording conducted by Richard Bonynge, which is now deleted. Daniel Auber and those shellac 78s of The Black Domino overture may now be long forgotten, but their impact isn't. Today PPL collects almost £100m annually on behalf of record companies and performers.

Now read about the French Eric Whitacre.
Image sampled from Domino Effect II by Susan Gillette. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

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