%0 Journal Article
%T Distributed Ownership in Music:  Between Authorship and Performance
%A Ananay Aguilar
%J Social & Legal Studies
%@ 1461-7390
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0964663917734300
%X Following criticisms of British copyright law that it is influenced by Romantic ideals of authorship, I ask whether it makes sense to distinguish between music composers and performers in law. Drawing on interviews with classical and popular music performers and relevant case law, I examine how performers negotiate and exploit different rights in order to determine ownership. Evidence suggests that rather than a binary, musicians¡¯ creative work can best be represented as moving along a continuum between composition and performance with both concepts socially much in use. Musicians position their work on this continuum according to three motifs: composer¨Cperformer discourses and careers, genre and power relationships. I argue that the legal categories of joint or individual authorship, adaptation and performance protect most contributions to a musical work and align with the social understandings of different types of contributions. Yet I also note that, viewed more normatively, a recasting of the rights could help shift those social understandings and alter the inequalities inherent in both musical practices and the law
%K Adaptation
%K copyright
%K joint authorship
%K music
%K ownership
%K performance
%K performers¡¯ rights
%K Romantic ideals
%K sound recording
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0964663917734300