Behind the Scenes: Music Performing Rights
Most singers know that their choir or chorus pays for published music they sing from. If the music is under copyright, there is often a reminder on the music that it is illegal to make unauthorized copies. Rather than printing and selling copies of music, some publishers authorize a chorus to pay for and print a specific number of copies on their own. In the United States, a copyright holder controls the making of copies for up to 95 years. Currently, works copyrighted in or before 1930 can be copied without permission. The same law applies to books and movies.
While copyrights are familiar, there is another right associated with music that is less familiar: the performing right. Just as publishers control the right to make copies of a song, songwriters and composers control the right to perform their songs in public.
It would be very difficult for a chorus to obtain performing rights from each individual composer whose work is featured in a concert. Instead, choruses rely on “blanket licenses” issued by performing rights organizations (PROs). The major PROs in the US are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. With a blanket license from one of these organizations, a chorus obtains permission to perform any work written by an artist affiliated with that PRO. As payment, PROs typically get a percentage of the chorus’s revenues or expenses, subject to some minimum level. The fees paid by all music users, from radio stations to doctor’s offices, are distributed to the writers, after covering administrative costs of about 10–15 percent.
Many popular choral composers are affiliated with ASCAP. In a sample of a dozen US choral composers, all were affiliated with ASCAP.* A BMI license would cover choral arrangements of songs such as “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart” or more recent songs by Taylor Swift or Rihanna. SESAC has many fewer affiliated writers than ASCAP or BMI, but would be relevant to perform a choral arrangement of a song written by such artists as Adele, Ariana Grande, or Neil Diamond. John Rutter, Ola Gjeilo and other non-US composers are affiliated with non-US PROs, but their works can be licensed through US PROs with which they have reciprocal arrangements.
Note that music performed during a religious service does not require a performing right license, due to an exemption in the copyright law. To perform music in other settings, churches can get a license from Christian Copyright Solutions that covers all works in the ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC catalogs.
Curious about where a particular songwriter or work is licensed? Try the Songview database (https://songview.com/).
*The composers in our arbitrary sample were Leonard Bernstein, Abbie Betinis, Emma Lou Diemer, Dan Forrest, Daniel Gawthrop, Elaine Hagenberg, Jester Hariston, Moses Hogan, Craig Hella Johnson, Rosephanye Powell, Caroline Shaw, and Eric Whitacre.
(Picture credit: <a href="https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos/gavel">Gavel Stock photos by Vecteezy</a>)