
Elvis Presley, The Beatles and even Bill Haley and the Comets could earn millions of pounds in unpaid royalties from aliens across the Universe, according to new research.
Little green men on planets fifty light years away are only now able to tune-in for the first time to the pop music revolution of the 1960s.
And the Performing Rights Society (PRS) have pointed-out that alien life forms could unwittingly be chalking-up a huge bill for listening to copyright performances without a licence.
The PRS recruited top scientists at the Astrophysics Research Institute to calculate the tunes which aliens may be illicitly bopping the night away with in distant solar systems.
Radio waves travel at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second - and there is nothing to stop broadcasts from planet earth continuing into the Universe for ever.
That means that radio broadcasts emanating from music radio stations in the 1960s are only now reaching planets orbiting the star Mu Arae, which is fifty light years away.
By comparison extra terrestrials on Pluto - at the edge of our solar system - could be quite up-to-date in their musical taste, with 2006 hits for James Blunt and Eminem arriving about now.
Alien life on Vega - the home planet of Star Trek's Dr Spock - will just be picking up Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' from 1984.
However, the PRS say that aliens further afield will only now be discovering the early recordings of Bill Hayley, Elvis Presley and The Beatles for the first time.
Dr. Andrew Newsam, the man behind the research at Liverpool John Moores University, said: "Whilst this has presented some humorous findings, there is also a serious angle to consider here.
"Music is a great example of the practical impact of physics because not only is its function and form a product of physics but so is its communication, whether terrestrial or inter-terrestrial."
A spokesman for the Performing Rights Society said: "It is fascinating to understand that radio waves from earth continue to travel through space to distant stars an planets, at the speed of light.
"However, we are not expecting a bonanza for the PRS in fees from outer space. We have checked out our files and any potential aliens are excluded from our own remit.
"We are a collecting agency operating on behalf of writers and musicians in the United Kingdom alone.
"It could be that performance fees for pubic performances of music on distant planets could be collected at some future stage, but it would need a completely new collecting agency to be formed to operate in outer space. It could happen."
Here is a ten top artists and the spots in the Universe that their music has reached.
Elvis Presley - Heartbreak - Alpha Cephei
The Beatles - Nu Phoenicis
Michael Jackson - Delta Eridani
ABBA - Alpha Aurigae
Queen - Delta Capricorni
Elton John - Ursae Majoris
Oasis - Pluto
Frank Sinatra - Herculis
Eminem - Uranus
Madonna - Vega
AC/DC - Delta Capricorni
Post a comment