Weird Al Yankovic?

[GreatJedi7]

I think Albuquerque could be edited down to under 10 minutes without hurting the song too much

Speed it up.

[PlatStrat]

i think albuquerque could be edited down to under 10 minutes without hurting the song too much

blasphemy!

[ThatAuthoringGroup]

I've actually looked for contact info for Al to no avail. Other than his twitter that is.

[SirDavidTLynch]

Before anything else you'd have to go to Sony, and major labels haven't had the best history with the Rock Band Network.

[AshtrayHeart]

Speed it up.

Oh God, that would be torture.

[xizorkatarn]

I've actually looked for contact info for Al to no avail. Other than his twitter that is.

Have you tried his Twitter? I've gotten through to celebrities in the past that way. You just gotta catch them at the right time. His website's forums might have an effect too.

[leob5622]

I know it's been explained as a moot point already, but...



Right, but concerts and audio collections are one thing. Dropping 'em in a video game (or anything displaying on a television or movie theater screen) gets into "sync rights", and that's a whole other (and much messier) set of negotiations.

I'd love to see some of Al's originals pop up on RBN. With a new album coming out later this year, maybe we'll see that happen (or maybe even some of his parodies wind up as Harmonix-released DLC?).

He has music video collections avail on dvd/vhs. I'd suppose he can get some leeway. Even then, doesn't he give some royalties to the artists (or their families)? I don't think they'd argue too much about cash coming their way.

[FujiSkunk]

He has music video collections avail on dvd/vhs. I'd suppose he can get some leeway. Even then, doesn't he give some royalties to the artists (or their families)? I don't think they'd argue too much about cash coming their way.

If cash were ever the only issue, we'd have Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd DLC available for RB3.

And yes, Weird Al has released DVD compilations, but you can bet he had plenty of legal paperwork to do to ensure those video compilations were all legit. In fact, it's funny you bring that up, because Yankovic has had trouble in the past getting permission to feature the opening credits of Spy Hard in his video offerings. At one point they told him he could do as long as he stripped out all of the actual credits, including the one of his own name!

Music licensing is such a quagmire even without taking "artist intent" into account, that it's nothing short of a miracle that we have what we do. Throw in how artists can get extra persnickety about how their stuff is used, and the tangled mess gets even messier (ever wonder why Yankovic had to include the original title in the name of his "Money for Nothing" parody?).

[deathmonkey]

It's further complicated by Harmonix's "no covers" policy for the RBN. Not sure if a parody fits their definition of "cover," but I imagine it would.

Yes, I'm pretty sure HMX has said that his parody songs would count as a cover and thus not be allowed. His original songs could be released though.

That's so weird, I had no idea that rule existed. Well, thankfully he has plenty of originals worth releasing, such as Dare to Be Stupid, Everything You Know Is Wrong, Genius in France, I Remember Larry, Your Horoscope for Today, UHF, and more.

But if Harmonix can break their own rule and release the Eric Cartman version of Poker Face they can break it again for a Weird Al parody...

[FujiSkunk]

But if Harmonix can break their own rule and release the Eric Cartman version of Poker Face they can break it again for a Weird Al parody...

We're talking about the possibility of Yankovic releasing tracks through the RBN. "Poker Face" was official DLC, as are all the other covers in Rock Band.