Europe's ageing rockers can sleep soundly in their carehomes tonight after the EU announced plans to extend the copyright terms on musical recordings for another 45 years.

Currently musicians can only collect royalties on recordings they made 50 years ago. That was probably OK when popular beat combo artists were not expected to live beyond 30 years, but these days they are living well into their 70s.

Bass player Herbie Flowers said that he played on a couple of very successful tracks, including Lou Reed’s 'Walk On The Wild Side' and David Bowie’s 'Space Oddity,' and it would be unfair for him to stop receiving income for this performance after 50 years - mainly because he's still alive.

It will not mean an increase in music prices as few fifty-year-old recordings sell in any real volume, and most of these performers' pay comes from radio performance payments now.

It looks like the change will only net an average old timer €150 to €2,000 per year.