Who controls the rights to a band’s/artist’s music, and decides whether or not it can be played on a tv show?

Question by Peaches O’ryan: Who controls the rights to a band’s/artist’s music, and decides whether or not it can be played on a tv show?
I got into a discussion with this guy about the whole Ryan Murphy/”Glee” situation, where Ryan Murphy got mad at Kings Of Leon because the band refused to let Glee cover their songs.

I said :”Well, Ryan Murphy was bummed because Kings Of Leon said no to his show but yes to Gossip Girl, Dancing with the stars, dancing on ice, and plenty of movies. Their music, their call, of course, but their reasoning was hypocritical.”

He said: “if you wanna dive further into that; their actual music being played on a show is up to their publishing company. they have no real choice in that. but since they personally own the rights to the music, they get to have a say when its covered for commercial purposes (like in the sense when glee would cover something) so basically, they had no say when a show like gossip girl played it (because their publishing owns the rights to it) but they do have a say when their song gets covered. /lawyered also, the album cycle was done for only by the night anyway you wanna cut it; the dude is a douche bag because he also freaked the fuck out when ac/dc and guns n roses said no and said the show was a pile of shit”

Is this true? I understand that bands license their songs through a publishing company, but that doesn’t make sense that having their songs covered is completely different from playing the actual song, since the bands/artists often sell their songs for a certain cut/fixed price. Could someone help clarify this?

Best answer:

Answer by byrde94
who ever owns the copyright to the songs has the final say
that could be the publisher
the producer,
any one person in the band
any combination of band members
if they sell the sell the rights, it could be someone else

or, it could be any combination of those above
it all depends on how the contract was written up

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!