Measuring the Harms of Unauthorized Campaign Music

When Donald Trump descended the escalator of Trump Tower to announce his 2016 presidential bid, Neil Young’s song “Rockin’ in the Free World” blared from the loudspeakers. Almost immediately, Young’s management made clear that the campaign’s use of the song was unauthorized. Neil Young was not alone. Trump drew similar objections from dozens of artists during his two presidential bids. But as a matter of copyright law, it is unclear whether artists can prevent their songs from being played at campaign rallies.Putting the intricacies of copyright licensing aside, what motivates artists to object to the use of their songs by political campaigns? This Article identifies and empirically tests three types of harm artists may reasonably fear. First, an artist may worry that campaign use of their song will harm its market value and popularity. To test that theory, we examine a novel set of industry streaming data to identify any meaningful shifts in streaming consumption after well-publicized campaign uses. Second, an artist may worry that campaign use may falsely lead the public to believe that they support or endorse a candidate. And third, even in the absence of any false endorsement, an artist may fear a tarnishment effect. That is, consumers may negatively associate the artist or their music with an unpopular or controversial candidate. We test the endorsement and tarnishment theories through an experimental design that measures consumer reactions to a set of hypothetical campaign uses.Our data paint a complicated picture. Although we find some evidence that songs used by the Trump campaign suffered a drop in streaming consumption, we cannot isolate the campaign use as the driver of reduced consumption. We also find strong evidence that an artist’s perceived support or endorsement of a candidate is material to consumers. But our data do not establish that a campaign playing an artist’s song gives rise to an inference of support or endorsement among a significant set of consumers. Finally, we found some evidence of a tarnishment effect under certain circumstances. In particular, less well-established artists are most likely to suffer from negative associations when their songs are used by controversial or divisive politicians.These results, while offering some empirical evidence of the consequences of unauthorized campaign use of music, do not on their own resolve the thorny doctrinal and normative questions at the heart of these controversies. But they do offer important guidance