Music and Copyright: Home

What is Copyright? It is a bundle of rights, spelled out in the US Code Title 17. The specific rights are listed in section 106. They include the rights of the author to:

• Make copies of the work;
• Distribute copies of the work (selling, renting, lending, or giving it away);
• Perform or display the work publicly (and by means of a digital audio transmission for sound recordings);
• Make derivative works, like translations, adaptations, and reinterpretations;
• Authorize others to do these things.

Copyright vests immediately upon the work being fixed in a tangible form, but registration is desirable in certain circumstances. Registration is online via the Copyright Office's Portal: https://www.copyright.gov/registration/. 

Copyright lasts until 70 years after the death of the author, or 95/120 years for "works for hire." And copyrights are severable--meaning the rights holder can authorize one person to make copies but not distribute, or another to distribute but not make copies. 

Note that for music, there are independent copyrights for the composition and for the recording. 

There are several limitations on copyright. These are some that most impact educators:

• Term: after the copyright duration, the work loses its copyright protection and becomes part of the Public Domain. Works by US federal (and some state) employees created in the course of their employment is automatically part of the Public Domain. Works can also be dedicated to the Public Domain via a specific license. (See, for instance, CC0.) 
• Teaching Exemptions: there are two teaching exemptions to be aware of:
  • Section 110.1 is for in-person classes
  • Section 110.2 (the TEACH Act) is for distance-education students, and has limitations on the display or performance of dramatic works. You cannot use the TEACH Act provision for materials that are created specifically for students to purchase such as textbooks, workbooks, or other digital education materials created for personal consumption. There is a helpful guide by the National Association for Music Education about the TEACH Act linked here. 
• Fair Use: Section 107 of the Copyright Act permits actions that would otherwise be infringements "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research," provided that the use is favorably evaluated using the four factors named in the statute: (1) the purpose and character of the use; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the use; and (4) the effect on the market. 
• Library Exemptions: Section 108 covers reproduction for preservation purposes of items that are not otherwise commercially available. 

Below are terms that are significant for navigating copyright and licensing for music:

• Mechanical Licenses: Provides other artists the right to cover someone else's songs in their own new recording. Generally managed in the US by the Harry Fox Agency, which negotiates and provides royalties to the compositions' copyright holders. (Also called a Compulsory Mechanical License.)
• PPR (Public Performance Rights): The license allowing someone to perform a work in public. There is a separate exemption for teaching (see above). 
• PRO (Performing Rights Organization): Holders of music copyrights register their works with organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC to manage blanket licenses for playing those works on the radio or in public venues. The PRO collects the licensing fees and distributes royalties to the copyright holder (and if needed to the publisher).  
• Sampling: Using short clips from someone else's work(s) within your own. Getting a license to use the clips in sound recordings is strongly suggested, as sampling without a license risks copyright infringement action. 
• Synchronization License: Permits the synchronization of copyrighted music to other content (generally video). 

This very useful webpage is organized around a set of commonly-asked questions that Music Teachers might ask or encounter, such as 

• May I copy selected pages of sheet music out of several books and assemble my own collection for the private use of my students?
• My student forgot his sheet music for a recital. May I make a copy of it?
• Do I need a music license from ASCAP or BMI to hold a piano recital for my students?

Access the Music Teachers National Association Copyright FAQ's here: https://www.mtna.org/MTNA/Learn/Copyright_FAQs.aspx

• Music Copyright Tutorials

  Created by the William & Mary Music Library, these tutorials provide an overview to music copyright for musical compositions and sound recordings.

Of all the forms of copyright protected works, music is perhaps the most restricted and licensed. Since music was first broadcast on radio, a vast mechanism for licensing music has emerged from the interactions between the recording industry and the radio and TV broadcasting industries.  This adds to the risk assessment factor and complicates evaluations of fair use as well, since "harm to the market" for the work is a much broader question.

When thinking of using or performing a musical work, consider:

• There are likely multiple copyright owners in any musical recording.
  • When you hear a song on the radio you are hearing two separate copyrights: one for the underlying musical composition (or even one for the lyrics and another for the music) and one for the sound recording. The distinction between these two is important, because even though they are both attached to one song, they are two separate works for copyright purposes and may be independently licensed or enforced.
• In addition to the restriction on copying or distributing the music (such as creating MP3 or CD copies), playing or performing it in public is also violation of copyright. You are likely to need to license public performance rights for anything outside a private space or as part of a face-to-face class.  
  • To be clear, "performing" includes broadcasting the song publicly, such as playing it for a public event.
• Because the music industry is so well-established, there is a special market for licensing songs to use in videos. ​If you are distributing (including by posting on the web) a video that includes music that isn't available via a license or that you don’t own or control, you may need a synchronization license. You will need to contact the publisher(s) directly to obtain these rights. 
  • Special note: some music publishers have pre-existing agreements with YouTube for synchronization rights. For more info, see Harry Fox Agency's "Do I need a license..." page.

Note: above content adapted and used by permission from Mt. Holyoke Library.

The Music Modernization Act updates the music licensing landscape to better facilitate legal licensing of music by digital services. It also provides certain protections (and exceptions to those protections) to pre-1972 sound recordings, and addresses distribution of producer royalties.

The Music Modernization Act has three main sections:

• Title I – The Musical Works Modernization Act, which creates a blanket license for interactive streaming services, and establishes a mechanical licensing collective (MLC) as well as a digital licensee coordinator (DLC), making it easier for services to obtain licenses and for creators to collect royalties.
• Title II – The Classics Protection and Access Act, which created federal rights for owners of sound recordings made before February 15, 1972.
• Title III – The Allocation for Music Producers Act (AMP Act), which creates a path to collect certain royalties for music producers, mixers, and sound engineers.

View the Copyright Office's webpage about the Music Modernization Act here: https://www.copyright.gov/music-modernization/

Connect to the Mechanical Licensing Collective here: https://www.themlc.com/. 

One important change for scholars is the rolling terms for sound recordings entering the public domain.