Once mocked as shoddy versions of the original bands they pay homage to, tribute acts are drawing increasingly larger crowds and selling merchandise.

As a result, tribute acts—groups that perform songs by artists or bands, often wearing identical outfits and with similar names—are also facing increased scrutiny for copyright and trademark infringement.

Any act can cover a song during a live performance as the result of a blanket license obtained by venue owners through performance rights organizations like American Society of Composers, Artists, and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), and the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN).

But what started decades ago with tribute bands paying homage to groups that had broken up and were no longer performing has turned into tribute bands replicating acts that are still touring. This growing business—tribute bands earn 85% more per concert compared to national talent in a 1,000-seat venue—has emerged as ticket prices for concerts and music festivals featuring original artists have skyrocketed, leaving fans seeking other outlets to see their favorite bands.

“Albeit perfectly legitimate, performing as a tribute act carries significant risks from an IP perspective,” said Anamitra Mukhopadhyay, an attorney at U.K.-based JMW Solicitors.

For example, the rights owners of the funk band Earth, Wind and Fire in March sued Substantial Music Group—the company behind the tribute act Earth, Wind and Fire Legacy Reunion—accusing them of copyright infringe and trademark dilution down to the group’s well-known “Phoenix” logo, word mark, Egyptian iconography, and even photos of “real” band members.

In the case of the rock group Pearl Jam, it sued the tribute band Pearl Jamm not only because its name was nearly identical, but because the act was also selling merchandise featuring Pearl Jam’s iconic “stickman” logo with its name in the same red font used by the original band. The suit was quickly settled when the tribute band—it had amassed 10,000 followers and planned a tour—changed its name to Legal Jam and billed itself as the U.K.’s “most popular and most authentic tribute to Pearl Jam.”

And Swedish pop supergroup Abba, which released its first album in 40 years in November 2021, sued the tribute act Abba Mania, which agreed to change its name.

But there have been cases where the original and tribute bands have co-existed. In fact, some popular tribute acts are performing with the original artist’s consent.

Clone Roses, a tribute band of the rock group Stone Roses, has been performing for 25 years and drawing crowds of 2,000 fans. And Only One Direction, which bills itself as “the world’s best One Direction tribute band,” headlined a music festival in Dubai that sold 250,000 tickets.

“I think people are more accepting of tributes now, particularly people within the industry, [because they] realize how important they are to keeping grassroots music venues open,” said Gavin Scott, lead singer of Clone Roses.