Music licensing laws can be very confusing since a number of different parties often hold a number of different licensing rights to each recording and each song. The information presented here is intended to help you understand how these laws can affect you as a fitness professional.
If you are interested in licensing music for your next video, TV show, or CD
project, Power Music has a library of thousands of songs that can be used.
We will be launching a new website that will let you preview tracks for your
project in the coming months. Click here for more information, and to hear sample tracks.
In the mean time, please contact us
at:
licensing2008@powermusic.com
for immediate access to our library.
Power Music is the first (and remains one of the few) aerobics music providers
to legally produce music for your fitness classes.
In the United States, a record company that produces and distributes records,
cassettes and CDs must obtain permission from the copyright holders or owners of
both the recording and the composition. These rights or licenses are secured
from both the record company and music publisher respectively. Power Music, as
the manufacturer, negotiates licenses with and pays fees and royalties to these
copyright owners the masters and is responsible for the license fees associated
with these two rights.
Unlike pirated DJ tapes and many other aerobics music providers, we pay record
companies and music publishers for their contribution on each CS or CD you
purchase. You have the security of knowing that with a Power Music workout, no
laws are being broken.
This will give you a general overview of the Public Performance right
and information on how to contact the three licensing organizations in the
United States: ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, as well as the one licensing organization
in Canada: SOCAN (see below).
When a composer first writes a composition he immediately attains certain
exclusive rights and protections under the copyright Act of 1976. Before the
song is recorded for release he will normally assign most of these exclusive
rights to his Publisher. A publisher, in most cases, is a company that will
protect the work and collect different types of income for the writer. One of
these rights is the right of Public Performance.
A normal commercial CD or CS release that you might buy at a local record
shop is produced for personal use, and licenses are secured to reproduce the
recording and the composition from both the record company and music publisher
respectively. Power Music, as the manufacturer, is responsible for the license
fees associated with these two rights.
Unlike pirated DJ tapes and other aerobics music providers, we pay record
companies and music publishers for each Cassette or CD you purchase. These two
licenses are all that is necessary to play the recording of the composition in
your home, on your Walkman, in your car or in any in other non-commercial
environment.
Playing or performing the music in a public setting requires the venue,
establishment, or in some cases the individual to secure an additional license,
The Public Performance License. The basic concept here is that if you and your
class are going to benefit from the performance of a writer's composition, the
writer should also benefit. These fees collected by the societies are eventually
distributed among its member writers as compensation for the performance of
their works.
Some of the establishments that are required to secure such licenses include
restaurants, ballparks, concert halls, radio stations, nightclubs, and health
clubs. In some cases an independent contractor who might teach class in an
unlicensed church, firehouse or gymnasium would be responsible for securing this
license.
A license issued by one of the 3 U.S. performance societies grants the
performance site or individual the right to publicly perform any composition
within that particular society's catalog of songs. A license from only 1 of the
3 societies does not cover you for performance of every song you will find on a
Power Music tape or CD. To legally perform publicly any music you would need to
secure licenses with all 3 societies. Most of the titles we release contain
compositions that are either ASCAP or BMI represented compositions.
These societies will grant a license for a certain period of time, usually
one year, and its fees are loosely based on a formula that evaluates the size of
the venue, the number of people that could potentially benefit from the
performance of a writers work, the number of speakers in an establishment and
other factors that can be directly linked to the benefit of Public Performance.
For further information you may contact:
ASCAP: 800/505-4052
BMI: 800/925-8451
SESAC: 800/826-9996
In Canada, contact:
SOCAN: 1 800 557 6226
