Also, if the copyright is owned by an entity, the name of the company will often (but not always) include the words “Productions” or “Publishing.” Note that just because a company has the word “publishing” in its name, it does not necessarily mean that the company publishes physical sheet music. If the song has been published in sheet music format, the name of the copyright holder will usually be at the bottom of the first page of music. It is common practice for the song’s author to assign the copyright in the song he or she wrote to a company in exchange for the company’s exploiting the song on the author’s behalf. Often, the individual who wrote the song and the copyright owner are not the same person. Permission to Alter and Arrangeįirst, if you intend to change a song in any way (for instance, alter lyrics or melody) and/or rearrange it for your choral group, you will need permission from the song’s copyright owner. Thus it’s likely that you’ll need to obtain permissions from distinct people or companies depending on how you’re using the song. These rights can be divided among or represented by different entities.
(For more on this topic, visit NAfME’s Copyright Center, and see “Copyright Law: What Music Teachers Need to Know,” Teaching Music, April 2008.) A copyright on a piece of music conveys a bundle of exclusive rights to the copyright owners, including the right to perform the work publicly, to reproduce the work, and to make derivative works. This article walks you through the steps of obtaining permissions for a fictional piece of music titled “A Really Nice Song,” and supposes that you are going to use it in the following ways: arranging the song for your choral group (including distributing a licensed copy of the song’s sheet music), performing it at your school, and uploading a video recording of the performance to be viewed on the Internet.Ī brief introduction to copyright law may be useful. But in truth, obtaining permissions for using copyrighted works can be a very simple and straightforward process. So what do you do next?Ĭopyright law is a daunting subject for most lawyers, so it’s no surprise that many music educators feel uneasy dealing with it as well. You know you need some kind of permission for using other people’s music in your classes. Untangling the Licensing Web and Other Copyright Questions
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