School Appropriate Music
- Thread starterCall911
- Start date
I am having a hard time finding specific answers online to my circumstances. I run a public high school venue and help with the pep assemblies. Everyone wants to play music. Is there some sort of 'blanket' copyright protection that we should be purchasing? I found the one for videos and movies that applies to high school years ago, but I haven't been able to find what we need for music. It's possible that the school already has it (they already had what we needed for video), but I want to know what I am looking for. I understand fair use for classrooms and educational experiences, but I don't know what qualifies as what.
Three specific scenarios are what I really am interested in.
1. Pep assembly. Admin want music as the kids come in.
2. Future Business Leaders of America conference. Non-profit organization, being hosted by my district, but the involved schools did technically pay registration fees. They want music for down times and for their 'Miracle Minute' (60 seconds of going around with buckets to collect donations to a charity).
3. A local non-profit theater company has rented my facility and wants to play music before, after, and during intermission.
I want to do things as legally as possible and model that behavior for my students.
Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
Ancient Engineer is closer to the mark than anyone else (as you'd expect).
ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC (at least) will write your organization/venue an annual blanket performance license, bsaed on your size and frequency of events. This is indeed the responsibility of the venue, not of visiting acts/DJs, and the venue will be who gets nailed if you screw up.
It's usually in the $1500-3000 range, chicken feed for a school district. Especially compared to the fines.
My understanding is that they disperse the fees to acts/labels based on current popularity, and do not require a cue sheet... but if you file one, they'll make sure *those acts get the money*.
So if you play back-catalog or indie music a lot, you should file cue sheets.
ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC (at least) will write your organization/venue an annual blanket performance license, bsaed on your size and frequency of events. This is indeed the responsibility of the venue, not of visiting acts/DJs, and the venue will be who gets nailed if you screw up.
It's usually in the $1500-3000 range, chicken feed for a school district. Especially compared to the fines.
My understanding is that they disperse the fees to acts/labels based on current popularity, and do not require a cue sheet... but if you file one, they'll make sure *those acts get the money*.
So if you play back-catalog or indie music a lot, you should file cue sheets.
I can't find secondary educational facilities on either of these sites. They have college/university designations, but I'm not seeing public school options.
Ancient Engineer
Well-Known Member
Jay has hit the nail on the head. As much as calling the ASCAP/BMI/SESAC folks directly is a not-always-pleasant thing, you should call them.
They can get you the forms and help you with the process. Be forthright, gracious and hat-in-hand and you will get what you need.
The dispersements are as Jay described. The cue sheet filing process is not awful... (in the big picture)
You will need a blanket from those three at a minimum. This will get you 95% or so of all artists.
Just feel relief that you don't need mechanical rights so your band can perform popular songs legally... that is a whole 'nuther flapcon 5...
They can get you the forms and help you with the process. Be forthright, gracious and hat-in-hand and you will get what you need.
The dispersements are as Jay described. The cue sheet filing process is not awful... (in the big picture)
You will need a blanket from those three at a minimum. This will get you 95% or so of all artists.
Just feel relief that you don't need mechanical rights so your band can perform popular songs legally... that is a whole 'nuther flapcon 5...
Malabaristo
Well-Known Member
I want to highlight this statement as it's often a point of confusion. ASCAP represents a certain set of artists and studios, BMI a different set, and so on. Getting a blanket license from any one of those organizations does not mean you can play whatever music you want--just the set of artists and studios they happen to represent. Getting the big three covers most music, but still not all of it. You would still need to check everything you play against their member lists to know for sure that you're in compliance. Copyright can be a very confusing topic, and there are a lot of little details like this to keep track of.
Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
One other fun idea: if there's music you want to include for positioning, but can't actually play for lyrics reasons, get the karaoke tracks, and play them underneath announce.
You get 'credit' for playing the song, and it even looks as if there's a 'good reason' you played the instrumental-bed version.
Much karaoke music is published ASCAP/BMI, so your blanket will still cover it, though the label won't get any money unless you file cue sheets. (This last is true for, pretty much, anything that isn't "Hot 100 in the last 3 years, or classic recurrent" -- I don't know their exact internal rule, and they may not publish it, but the only way to get money to writers for out-of-the-way songs is to file cue sheets with ASCAP and BMI.)
You get 'credit' for playing the song, and it even looks as if there's a 'good reason' you played the instrumental-bed version.
Much karaoke music is published ASCAP/BMI, so your blanket will still cover it, though the label won't get any money unless you file cue sheets. (This last is true for, pretty much, anything that isn't "Hot 100 in the last 3 years, or classic recurrent" -- I don't know their exact internal rule, and they may not publish it, but the only way to get money to writers for out-of-the-way songs is to file cue sheets with ASCAP and BMI.)
Similar threads
