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Podcast Notes: The Rest Is Entertainment - Episode: The Secret Tax on TV Gameshows
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Podcast Overview Title: The Rest Is Entertainment Hosts: Richard Osman & Marina Hyde Description: Richard and Marina offer insider knowledge on TV, movies, and pop culture, providing listeners with the latest insights into the entertainment industry.
Episode Summary In this episode titled "The Secret Tax on TV Gameshows," Richard and Marina discuss various topics related to television and pop culture, including the implications of taxation on game show prizes in different countries, the future of Channel 4 under new leadership, and the evolving lengths of pop songs.
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Key Topics Discussed
- Taxation on Game Show Prizes
- UK vs. US Taxation:
- In the UK, cash prizes from TV shows are typically tax-free.
- In the US, winners face immediate taxation on prizes, leading to situations where winners might decline prizes due to tax implications.
- Example:
- Winners of luxury prizes often request cash equivalents to cover tax burdens.
- The Future of Channel 4
- Lisa Nandy's Role:
- Richard discusses the potential impact of the new Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, on Channel 4.
- Emphasizes that while Nandy's sympathies towards the creative industry are beneficial, Channel 4 must innovate and find new revenue sources to thrive.
- Long-term Outlook:
- Richard suggests that traditional linear TV channels, including Channel 4, may struggle to survive in their current form over the next 15 years.
- Trends in Music: Shorter Song Lengths
- Current Trends:
- Marina notes that pop songs have been getting progressively shorter, with many now under three minutes long.
- Reasons for Shorter Lengths:
- The rise of streaming platforms (e.g., Spotify) incentivizes shorter songs to retain listener engagement and encourage sharing on social media platforms like TikTok.
- Historical context: Song lengths have changed over time due to technological advances in music distribution and audience preferences.
- The Evolution of Movie Trailers
- Early Releases:
- Discussion around the trend of releasing trailers significantly earlier than before, often up to a year in advance.
- Marketing Strategies:
- Studios aim to build hype and reach wider audiences through early trailers, utilizing online platforms for real-time feedback and engagement metrics.
- Dynamic Pricing and Tracking:
- Insights into how studios are using audience engagement data to refine marketing strategies and boost visibility for new releases.
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Noteworthy Quotes
- “If there is [a challenge], a lot of people want to hear from her.” - Richard Osman on Lisa Nandy’s potential impact.
- “You can stick it all on up front. The worst thing ever happened this week.” - Richard, reflecting on the pacing of modern television narratives.
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Key Takeaways
- Tax regulations around game show prizes vary significantly between the UK and the US, impacting winner decisions.
- Channel 4’s survival depends on innovation and adapting to the current media landscape, with Lisa Nandy’s leadership seen as potentially stabilizing.
- Shorter song lengths reflect a larger trend driven by streaming dynamics and social media engagement.
- Early trailer releases have become a strategic marketing tool in the film industry, leveraging audience data to maximize impact.
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Conclusion This episode of "The Rest Is Entertainment" provides insightful commentary on the changing dynamics of the entertainment industry, from taxation policies to the evolving nature of music and film marketing. Richard Osman and Marina Hyde's discussions highlight the importance of adaptation in a rapidly changing media landscape.
For further updates and content, listeners are encouraged to sign up for The Rest Is Entertainment newsletter at [therestisentertainment.com](http://www.therestisentertainment.com).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
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1:22Hello and welcome to this edition of the Restors Entertainment Questions Edition. And I'm Maureen Hyde, I've remembered to say this week. And I'm Richard Osman. Welcome to this Question and Answers Edition. can I tell you what I think the issue is with the introduction why it trips you every time I think you say the word edition twice you say welcome to this edition of the questions edition there's a sort of synaptic short circuit I think if you were writing that you would cut out one of the editions I think if I was writing it I was listening to the podcast last week and I thought do you know what that's my note okay right well next week it's such a work in progress that introduction I love that it's you see something different every time I've been doing it for a year or so it's not a year yeah a year or so we have lots and lots of great questions we have some any other business first you remember last week we were talking about um toilet flushes for various reasons and we're trying to work out the first ever toilet flush on television which i thought was um step to and some but we have a movie one here from stephen woodward hi there sir stephen woodward hi stephen i have my long suffering wife emma to thank for this particular piece of trivia hi emma she was once a film and media lecturer and told me the first cinematic toilet flush was in psycho yeah Long ago.
2:30Long ago. At one point, Marianne is shown flushing a toilet in the Bates Motel with its contents, pieces of torn up notepaper, fully visible. Up until that point, no flushing toilet had ever appeared in mainstream film and television in the United States. Well, I mean, that now, for me, is the film's major innovation. Yeah, isn't it? So thank you, Stephen Woodward, but more importantly, thank you, Emma Woodward. And indeed, Alfred Hitchcock. And thank you to Alfred Hitchcock. And thank you also to Janet Leigh. And thank you also to Thomas Crapper, without whom none of us would be here. everybody gets a shout out on this show um shall i ask you a question please do this comes from whoa this is from rowan stromanga that's an action hero name yeah rowan stromanga has a question rowan says i think it's a lady or a gentleman r-o-w-a-n a lady i think could be either could be either let's say lady um because it changes the voice i do it in recent times do you know what i do it in my voice so i do it in my voice i think on so many for so many reasons it would be best if you did it in your voice i wonder what country she's from i'm just really trying to put you back onto our safest ground i think she's finished no uh rowan asks in recent times songs specifically pop rap have got progressively shorter oh she says have gotten progressively shorter that's interesting which means maybe american sometimes my children say that and i correct them i like it i know i like gotten i I think it's one of those words I quite like to come into the English language.
3:55Let's do a question. Let's do a question. Let's do a question. Rowan says, in recent times, songs, specifically pop, rap, have gotten progressively shorter. Could you give context to why this is? Could you give what, please? Context. Sorry, it sounded something different. Okay. They have definitely, definitely gotten shorter. In the 50s and 60s, you know, you'd get those very short songs of two and a half minutes. and you hear things like Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly and they're really sort of tight, concise songs. But then it bloats, like many things, it bloats. And I think they get to their longest.
4:31I did a little bit of research into this. They get to their longest in the 90s where the average song length is something like four minutes 20. Originally, by the way, song lengths were how much would fit on one side of a vinyl record without sort of too much compromising sound quality. Yes, often the technology is why things are certain lengths. And also advertising segments, news, radio, all these sort of things. No one really wants to hear your seven minute epic, which is why we get things like radio edits. But obviously when tapes and CDs came along, they could go longer. Oh, hang on. The Beatles.
5:01Hey Jude is very long. It's about seven minutes. But they were the Beatles and they could do literally anything they wanted. And also they've done a lot of short songs before that. Yeah. And they were the Beatles. So they could do what they liked. But nowadays it has become much shorter and it's quite interesting. If you look at sort of like Taylor Swift, Speak Now, which I think came out in 2010, the songs are a whole minute longer in that than they are on Midnight's. And that speaks of a general trend. If you're on Spotify, by the way, artists only get royalties if the listener has stayed engaged, basically listen to it for 30 seconds or more.
5:32And also people want to clip them and they want to use them on TikTok and things like that. And that is such a big part of artist promotion now that the artist realizes and are not giving us their seven minute epics any longer. So you're not going to do a big, long intro because you don't want people to switch off after 25 seconds, get straight into a hook. Well, you're quite right. It starts, so many of these songs start with choruses, start with hooks. And actually, it's something you also see. And bridges have sort of almost disappeared because it's things where people think not a lot happens unless you're Taylor Swift and your bridges are amazing.
6:00This is like the rest is engineering. Yeah, it is. Bridges have disappeared. And so to some extent, it's about attention. But you do also see it in films. If you're watching a film, a sort of fun action comedy from the 80s, it takes a long time to get going compared to if you're watching a Marvel film where you'll have a massive sequence almost before the titles. And so lots of things have had to work on hooking your attention in immediately. And songs are just one of those things. Half of Spotify's songs last year in 2023 were under three minutes. Yeah. And one of the big songs, Klioti, Poland, is like 80 odd seconds.
6:34I love it. And it's obviously been endlessly tick-tocked, endlessly sampled for all sorts of little things, little viral bits of content. So the artists realise this as well, which is why they're sort of self-censoring in terms of their big epics. But as so often, artistic things follow technical things and technological things. If you can make a longer record and it makes you more money, then that's what you do. Not because you want to make more money, but you can do. And the second someone says, actually, it's sort of better if you make this two minutes 30 rather than three minutes 30. to a lot of genuinely creative people.
7:03That's quite a fun thing to be told. So Eurovision, for example, the songs have to be three minutes and that's because, you know, you cut it for a TV show and it's so three minutes. But that's a creative thing for people to do. If things have to be certain lengths, creative people often quite like it. Often it follows the technology. And as you say, the Spotify thing of if people listen to 30 seconds of this, then you're getting paid. You're going to stick it all on up front. The worst thing ever happened this week. I'd forgotten. Tell me. Which is, I love the night manager, right? The John le Carré thing that was on BBC with Hugh Laurie and what have you.
7:34Tom Hiddleston. And I'd watched it four or five years ago. Ingrid had not watched it. I said, this is definitely one of those ones that I will watch again because I absolutely loved it. So we were watching this thing and I thought this, it starts really, I thought two things. I thought it starts really big. I mean, the first episode, like a lot is happening. And I also thought it's great that they're not, and it's very le Carré and it's not explaining a lot. Like, you know, Olivia Colman gets introduced. We're not told who she is. we have to surmise who she is. And as we got towards the end, I realised we were watching the last episode, not the first episode.
8:06Ah, and you know, Ingrid was really enjoying it. And she's like, God, they pack a lot into this episode. Where's this going? And I was like, yeah, yeah. And in my head, I was thinking, yeah, I think this does happen. And then this is the bit. And then you sort of go back, like it's a year later and, you know, and no, it was the last episode. I love how this doesn't insult the audience. Yeah, but it really wasn't. But I really thought this, but no, it was the final episode. A lot of writers will tell you, A writer's trick is think where you want your series to end or your episode to end and then just force yourself to make it miles better by making that end of that one.
8:38Yeah, but it was terrible because Ingrid's like, oh great, let's just watch episode two immediately and I'm like, I have some bad news about episode two and we can watch episode two but it'll feel like a prequel and it'll be a lot more gently paced. But anyway, listen, it's an amazing one-off last episode and I will give it that. This is quite an open-ended run for you, Richard. Lisa Nandy, Tom Harbert writes of the Culture Secretary, will Lisa Nandy save Channel 4? Oh, that's a good question. Firstly, speaking on behalf of podcasters, welcome Lisa Nandy. If you're the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, you are the Secretary of State for Podcasts, right?
9:14Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's like your area. Typically, the Culture Secretary would hate all the aspects of their brief to follow the form book, or there would be something that they knew absolutely nothing about. Exactly, where she seems to actually quite like the media in various ways. Will she save Channel 4? It's an interesting question. She does seem to quite like the media, yes. And sport. Yeah. So that's good. And culture, I guess. It's a very good question. I mean, Channel 4 has to save itself for sure, and Channel 4 know that. And they save themselves by making new shows and by finding new sources of revenue and by sort of increasing eyes across various different bits of the media.
9:47One thing she won't do is get in the way of that, I think. And, you know, they did have a tricky time under the Tory government because they were constantly being, you know, threatened with privatisation. I never bought that. I always thought it was trolling. I thought, you know, when Nadine Dorris is saying we're going to privatise Channel 4, I don't think you have the power or the will to do that, Nadine Dorris. But if you're running Channel 4, it's a clear and present danger and you do have to address it. And it does destabilise people and it does destabilise the people who are working for you.
10:14So will she save it? I mean, they have to save themselves by commissioning great shows. But knowing that there's not an existential threat to them, I think will be very, very helpful. Certainly, if they haven't saved themselves in three years, there will no longer be an excuse. That is definitely the case. But I think, yeah, the climate where one imagines that the Labour government will be sympathetic to drama makers and to independent producers in Britain, which, to be fair, the Tories were also, you know, there's lots of tax breaks. Don't imagine she's about to stop them because that industry brings a huge amount of money in.
10:47You know my view on these things. I'm not sure anyone's going to save any of those linear channels. you know if we're talking about 15 years time i'm not sure any of them exist in the way that they currently do definitely run the best steam railway in the 1950s for sure and you know you could maximize your income from from that but it's not going to stop the electrification of the railways so you know i my view has always been if you make content you're like someone who makes seats for trains and so it doesn't matter to you if they're steam trains or if they're electric trains and it's hard for someone like channel 4 to break out of being a linear television channel whatever digital strategy they have they're still encumbered by their legacy and what they are i think it's hard for them to build that business i think they're i think we're sort of in the era of managing decline with the best will in the world and if they manage it well then we'll have a lovely 15 years of great tv from the bbc and itv and channel four and if they manage it badly then we will have less i don't think there's an awful lot that lisa and andy can do to change the viewing habits of a generation and to change the spending habits of a generation of advertisers.
11:53If there is, a lot of people want to hear from her. Yes, exactly. She's actually wasted in that particular role because she doesn't have the power in that role to do a whole lot about that. So I think all she can do is leave them be to get on with their own business plan, which I think she will do. So I think that's very good news for Channel 4. But I think if we're thinking in 15 years time, the media landscape is going to be the same. I suspect that is not what is going to happen. But you can definitely extend the life of Channel 4 and you can make some great TV shows and you can add to the joy of British culture.
12:24There's going to be a stop date to all of that stuff. I hope that's not too much of a downer. Not at all. Yeah. Not at all. Not at all. Vanessa Moritz has a question for you, Marina. She asked, why are movie trailers being released earlier and earlier in recent years? F1 with Brad Pitt was 12 months before the show came out. Joker, Follier Deux. six months before Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse also six months before. Why are they being released so early these days? There's a few answers to that. The sort of basic one is hype. All of those movies you've just mentioned, all of those different studios really have spent a lot of money on these and want and need them to be massive.
13:01So there's a sort of thing that the longer people have to wait, the more they want something. I don't know if that's necessarily true. Theatrical audiences, people going out to the cinema, are becoming smaller and smaller numbers. So it takes longer to reach the amount of people you need to make something a big hit. And you have to sort of start spreading out because they're just not seeing as many films as they used to. So you want that. We're still on the sort of downstream effects of the various writers' strikes. They won't make it feel like that. They'll have something out all the time. There is a hiatus in big movies because there was both writers and the screen actors' strike.
13:33And they put obviously a complete stop on production. So things are being introduced earlier and earlier. another reason is in some ways the most interesting reason is to do with marketing and we talked before about tracking and how tracking is the movie's ways of studios ways of seeing how their movies are going to open and often these are movies they spent a lot of money on to some extent it will be a form of dynamic pricing the dynamic cost the marketing if they feel that beetlejuice isn't getting enough purchase and they want i actually personally think beetlejuice is going to be a big hit because of general ortega and it brings young audiences and whatever but getting that engagement via tracking if people become aware of those movies which they might largely via trailers and cinemas at that point then you're going to start being able to see on the tracking like are people mentioning this film spontaneously in their socials are they doing all these different things and then you can see where you might spend more on marketing to ensure that your big film is a hit in the old days with a trailer there's only really two places to play it you play it in the cinema with other films which is good because you know it's a captive audience of people who like watching films or you play it on television and the key to do that is you play it maybe a week before because people want to book their tickets or you play it when on opening day now people are watching trailers online so the combined views on youtube of the three trailers they've had so far for beetlejuice are 51 million you know which is insane and something that you didn't used to be able to do something you wouldn't have been able to have and almost more importantly is the comments underneath if you want to release you know the beetlejuice trailer six months ahead you stick it on youtube and as you say you can absolutely track how well it's doing you can look at every single comment you get this incredible data six months out from this movie coming out and then you absolutely just refine your message you see which bits people like you can recut the trailer you are just doing all of your market research ahead of time but they didn't used to be able to do that because they could show it to a focus group you know that's something they could have done but you're not getting a huge amount now whereas now you're getting this real-time stuff because putting out a trailer is not a bad thing at any time you want people to see what it is you've got ahead of you and all movies you've got the footage for the trailer a long time before the movie comes out anyway that that hasn't changed but now you have this incredible opportunity where you can see this film so long in advance it makes it feel it gives it a sort of an inevitability like with the marvel cinematic universe that we talked about on tuesday when you know a film is coming out in 2027 it's almost like the train is coming to the station.
15:59Incredible resource now they have that they can put out a trailer and you can do their market research for them in real time. It's something they just didn't used to have. And this is why you'll see the teaser trailer. Then you'll see a first official trailer, second official trailer. They all come in stages now. It's interesting. I was talking to director about this the other day who said on day one of shooting his film, he was told that he needed to provide some footage for the trailer. He was like, what? Day one of the shoot was a very big sort of franchise movie and had to provide on day one so that they can already start working and putting little bits of things out there they're starting so far in advance to get that so but because and again for another reason we say that we live in this quite siloed world and it's quite possible that you might not hear about things because your particular kind of atomized area of the internet that talks about your interests aren't seeing them so they want kind of saturation as much as possible because they want everything to be a four quadrant movie if it possibly can be which as you say is young men young women older men older women they want everything to appeal to everybody all the time yeah and that side thing is fascinating because i know you see it in all sorts of areas now that if you think that something is being trailed endlessly that says less about the thing and more about the media the way you set up that you consume because i i might think an entirely different thing is being you know i might think that walk-in baths are endlessly being advertised because i watch countdown if you see something doing endlessly they it is not being marketed at you yeah right it is desperately trying to find people who would not see this normally is trying to find each you know which is why coca-cola is still advertised because you just you need to keep mopping up people and mopping up people but yeah i think yeah the short answer is i think because they can put the trader out a year in advance now when they didn't used to be able to shall we go to some adverts let's do that
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19:08and encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. This episode is brought to you by Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels and music are made for each other. They share a rhythm in the craft of making something timeless, while being a part of legendary nights. From backyard jams to sold-out arenas, there's a song in every toast. Please drink responsibly. Responsibility.org. Jack Daniels and Old Number 7 are registered trademarks. Tennessee Whiskey, 40 % alcohol by volume. Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee. Welcome back, everybody. Now, this is a bit of a follow-up to our discussion about Olympic commentators last week.
19:48Ade Grayson says, I love watching sports I don't normally see when the Olympics rolls around. Last Q &A episode, you spoke about generalist commentators and them being alongside a former athlete in said sport. But how do commentators on events like skateboarding, surfing, or BMX, which have such niche tricks and phrases go about making it easy to understand for people like me who only catch it every four years? Such a good question. I love, by the way, the new Olympics having some of these sports in, which they seem at first, you think, oh, this is a novelty. But actually you watch the BMX and the skateboard and they're brilliant.
20:18I love having those sports because remember the X Games was huge for a while and actually the Olympics seems to have drawn some of the energy of that. The guys I absolutely love are Ed and Tim who do the BMX and stuff and so enthusiastic and actually are very, very good at making you understand what's going on and making you feel included so we asked them personally how they go about exactly this we asked this exact question how do you go about bringing people in and making these sports understandable for people watching them for the first time and this is what they had to say hello my name's tim warwood and this is ed lee and we are bbc action sports commentators um we've both made a living out of translating the esoteric elements of action sports to mainstream audiences.
21:00It's a long craft. It takes a long time to get the hang of it and work out how you do that and what works for people. We started off in live, so we would do a lot of snowboard and skate, BMX contests, demos, things like that. You're having to explain these tricks and you can see in real time on people's faces whether or not they're getting what you're actually saying. So you learn very quickly. One of the most amazing elements of it is that you can treat it like a bedtime story for a six month old. it doesn't matter what you say it's all about your pitch your tone and your level of excitement so it's backside 50 50 through the corner there front side smith setting up and then he's exploded out of that into a big kickflip melon and and you know you don't need to know what the trick is but you know when it's good that way oh that's absolutely brilliant thank you so much to uh tim and ed that's great right i i like that they often don't actually know the full detail you can't possibly know some of the stuff you can't possibly know and no one expects you to know the absolute full details it is so much better though when people understand some because honestly when they're just sitting there going wow or did you see that yeah i did see it i'm watching it at home can you tell me something about it please and there are commentators out there like there couldn't be further from ed and tim who who do give you very very little i find so it's that the picture voice for a sick month well it can cover a multitude of sins we should also say because i'll tell you You never see Hazel Irvine do.
22:26No, she doesn't need to. She doesn't need to lose it because she knows it all. Yeah. And she's got that great tone. So I totally agree that the tone is very, very important. As with anything in life, any form of writing or speaking, the tone is almost more important than the substance. I'm absolutely loving the BBC coverage of the Olympics. The magic trick they're pulling off, which is incredibly impressive, is they don't have a huge amount of the rights anymore. No, Discovery have the big package. Discovery have the big packages. so that it still feels like they've got the rights to everything and they're able to show us everything and you've got this incredible footage on iPlayer the whole time and they're switching in between.
23:00Very, very neat trick they're pulling off, which is I still feel like I'm watching all of the Olympics. I certainly feel like I'm watching everything where British medalists are involved or exciting names and the 100 metres final. They're doing an amazing job, I think. And what a group of presenters. You've got Claire Bourdie, you've got Jeanette Quache, you've got Gabby Logan. I mean, just like, just great and the great experts. I'll listen to Michael Johnson all day long. So I think it's been an absolute masterclass in how to do something incredibly difficult and make it look fairly simple. Even though people always say, oh, why did you cut from this to that?
23:35And why did you cut from that to that? You think, well, because you have to. And because we're not allowed to be on six o 'clock on BBC Two. You know, we have to sort of change channels every now and again. And like I was watching the final Andy Murray match and it was at the same time as the swimming final. And you think, oh God, what do you do here? because everyone wants to watch both of these things and you do have to navigate that. If you had to sit down for one minute and work out that BBC schedule and work out what they had to do and understand how they had to put that running order together.
24:02It's much harder than when in 2012 they had the red button for absolutely, you could go to absolutely everything because they had everything. But they haven't had that in the last two games, I think. And I think a lot of people don't know that. And I think that's a testament to how well it's been put together. Marina, I have a question from oliver needham any questions uh oliver needham yeah you know what i mean answers oliver oliver oliver needham yeah listen you know what i mean oliver but thank you for your question uh oliver asks why are cash prizes tax-free in the uk quizzes and competitions and things like i believe there was something about there having to be skill involved to make it not betting but just texting a word to win doesn't appear to be a skill yes um i think it's it's the gambling act of 2005 that says that you that there needs to be some element of skill in the question if you were talking about this it would be like what podcast are you currently listening to is it the rest is entertainment the rest is enlightenment or the rest is embarrassment but there has to be a reasonable assumption that some people will answer one of the wrong ones now if you've ever heard me do a top three in an eccentric order then a number of people might right in and say it's the rest of his embarrassment surely surely that was the name of this show it doesn't tend to be enforced so our prizes everything including the millionaire prize anything else is tax-free which makes you think hang on in other countries can you like win a car and have to pay 50 tax on it the answer is yes in the u.s it is utterly brutal anything you win on any of their many game shows is immediately taxable television show gives you a form as they're giving you the prize off camera and they also send that form to the irs they know that you have won a car and if you can't pay the tax on it so some people it's it's really common practice to say could i have if not the cash value of this because then it's much easier to pay the tax to say can i have half the cash value of this because i honestly so if they're giving you some luxury holiday and you're like well hang on i'm going to actually end up having to pay six thousand dollars for whatever percentage of this luxury holiday, then can I not have it actually, please?
26:14If it's a non-cash prize, it's very problematic. And some prizes remain totally unclaimed in the event of actual winning them because people are told and they have this whole chat when they're given the form and they think, actually, it's too expensive for me to have this prize, which is pretty awful. So it's quite nice that we have that. Yeah, so over here, it's always been the case. And, you know, 15, 20 years ago, a lot of the companies were getting involved in gaming and gambling. that is you know you'd have fixed odds games based on deal or no deal and stuff like that and that you do get taxed on because it is entirely random but yeah the second there's even a vague amount of skill and as you say we once showed a picture of the planet earth on pointless uh with the letter e underneath it and said what planet is this and it's called 91 showing a picture of planet earth and saying what is it is a game of skill because some some people will not get that right nine percent of people i mean that is extraordinary but every all of these questions when you think this is so imbecilic no one could possibly get this wrong i'm afraid anyone who produces those shares will tell you many many get it wrong that's the thing whenever you play games on your phone and there's all those adverts for other games which are sort of strategy games or you know matching you know three symbols and stuff like that and they deliberately play them badly while you're watching it for 30 seconds because you go oh my god i could definitely do that i oh my god he's being an idiot because you just those three together you think i could definitely do that oh do we have time for one more because i like this one from emily bar uh emily says i saw sophie ellis bexter at tram lines in sheffield and she played various songs by other artists can i tell you a very quick sophie ellis bexter please do halfway through the question i'm so sorry only because she turned on the christmas lights in chiswick uh a couple of years ago and the mayor of chiswick clearly didn't know who she was and introduced her as sophie ellis and bexter but like like it was a dog act and so whenever she's on tv now we always say oh there's sophie ellis and I love that also you attended the searching under the lights.
28:06Of course. I mean, absolutely. Big fan. There's two people I'm a big fan of. Sophie Ellis and Bexter. Yeah. Sorry, Emily, to hijack your question. And now the second half of Emily's question. Yes, exactly. She saw Sophie Ellis and Bexter at Tram Lines and Sheffield play various songs by other artists. If an artist wants to cover someone else's songs, do they need to ask permission? What happens if the original artist is dead? Do they need to get permission from their estate? OK, well, I guess, Emily, you were talking about live because that's how you saw her. In general, if you're doing a performance of something live and it's not going to be recorded and you're not going to publish it, then it's sort of fair game.
28:36You can do any old covers you want. But the venue that you're doing it, it will need to have a PRS license. Now, these PRSs are performing rights organizations and they make sure that musicians get royalties, etc, etc. Now, it's not a huge amount for a venue to have one every year. And if a venue suddenly says, oh, we don't want ours anymore. Performing rights organizations here in the United States are so hot on this. they will effectively send out spies to say, yeah, I saw someone doing a Steely Down song there. And apparently you don't have a PRS license. So that's a bit weird, isn't it? So a venue has to pay a certain amount a year and it's not a huge amount.
29:10And they get a small amount per show and you get the artists get royalties. However, you are supposed to report the performance. You are supposed to report a set list. By the way, even buskers are supposed to do this to say, you know, when I was on the underground the other day, I did whatever set list you did. your busking license is much less and it's as much as smaller and you'll get a smaller royalty but it is all supposed to be covered by this um you still get a lot for wonderwall if it's all the buskers in britain added together oh yeah i mean it's huge in practice it often doesn't happen but you are supposed to report that list uh but by and large you don't need permission to cover someone else's song it's not you obviously have to pay but you don't need permission sometimes you need permission if you want to change words or change lyrics and stuff like that you then have to seek permission by and large you can record someone's song so an example would be you know Nirvana when they're at their absolutely most massive and they did the Unplugged concert which was absolutely huge and sold so many copies and they did a cover of the Vaselines who are very cool uh in the Glasgow band Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam um they covered that because Kurt Cobain was a huge fan of the Vaselines I can't tell you exactly how much uh the Vaselines made from that but it was an awful lot probably as much as the Zootons made from Amy Winehouse doing Valerie so it's one of those things if you record something and it's on an album you you do once it's recorded you're in a whole different kettle of fish but if you're if if it's just if it's live yeah you can get away with more sophie ellison bexter are absolutely fine doing that i would say but also part of the nature of live music is that you don't want to have to say to people ages in advance can you tell me the exact songs you'll be doing tonight in the exact order so that i can go and go to all the that's what the pris license is for is to preserve some of that you know let's do this one tonight in order that you can have that sort of spontaneity i think that's us done for another that is us done edition of the question and answers edition yeah you're right i will modify next week yeah uh but before then we will have the main edition of the show so please do join us we do yeah we'll uh we will see you next tuesday see you next tuesday
31:27The Sausage McMuffin with Egg
From the publisher
Every prize on British telly is tax free, but this isn’t the case in the United States. Marina explains why the price isn’t always right when it comes to winning big.
Can Lisa Nandy save Channel 4? Richard explains what the new culture secretary must do to keep the creative industries alive.
And why are pop songs getting shorter and shorter?
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