Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch Leaves Will Demanding Music Not Be Used In Ads

During his life, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch was very open about his disdain for musicians selling their music to advertisers. In death, he reportedly made sure his songs will never be used for such purposes. Parts of the forty-seven-year-old’s will have been made public, and one section forbids Yauch’s image, name or music from ever being “used for advertising purposes”.

It’s unclear how exactly Yauch meant for advertiser to be defined, whether he wanted to also forbid charities/ non-profits/ his bandmates from using the music, but one would imagine those questions would get sorted out in the next few years. Luckily, the other Beastie Boys haven’t exactly shown an excitement about selling music to advertisers; so, I highly doubt they’ll be any legal battles over the will, at least in the near future.

According to The Washington Post, the will became public thanks to a recent lawsuit filed by Yauch’s widow as well as his surviving bandmates. Monster energy drink reportedly used the band’s music during a twenty-three minute promotional video without authorization, and the plaintiffs would like it stopped immediately.

Musicians have argued amongst themselves for years about whether it’s appropriate to sell music to companies. Regardless of what your feelings are on that, it’s nice to see Yauch stuck to his guns down to the end. And with more than six million dollars worth of assets left to his wife and daughter, there doesn’t seem to be any financial reason why his music would need to be sold in the future.