Music is a universal form of entertainment enjoyed in many forms and spaces. It can build atmosphere, encourage you to move your body, evoke emotions, and even trigger memories. But music wouldn’t exist without the work of songwriters, composers and publishers who compose and create it.
Technically, despite purchasing it with your money, you never really own the music yourself. Even if you own a CD or record, you own that physical copy but not the actual music itself.
Equally, when you pay to download or stream music, you’re essentially purchasing a licence and leasing the content – which means you can only play this music in a non-commercial setting. You can listen to the songs yourself as much as you like, but you’re not able to play them in your business premises/setting, even if you’re a charity. This would be in breach of copyright law as it’s considered to be a public performance. Any infringement carries steep and significant penalties.
Copyright Law
Under The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, permission is needed from the relevant copyright holders – those people who created the music – to play or perform music in public.
While section 34 of the Act provides that certain performances (restricted to teachers and pupils at an “educational establishment”) are not a public exhibition for the purposes of infringement of copyright, section 174 summarises the meaning of “educational establishment” to include ‘school’. This means that, unfortunately, nurseries, pre-schools and playgroups/baby and toddler groups don’t fall within the definition of an educational establishment so aren’t exempt.
TheMusicLicence
You can obtain TheMusicLicence through PPL PRS Ltd here: bit.ly/U5-TheMusicLicence.
With this, you’ll get the required permission to play the vast majority of commercially-available music. They collect licence fees from UK businesses and organisations on behalf of their parent companies, PPL and PRS for Music. PPL then distributes these music licence fees for the use of recorded music on behalf of record companies and performers, while PRS for Music distributes music licence fees for the use of musical compositions and lyrics on behalf of songwriters, composers and publishers.
This ensures that the people who create music are fairly rewarded for their talent and work. It means you don’t have to spend your time and energy contacting potentially hundreds of thousands of rights holders directly to get permission to play or perform their music in your business.
MPLC Umbrella Licence®
Similarly, while you may have rented, borrowed, or purchased an audio-visual programme, you’re only granted the right to view it for personal, private use – not to perform it in public.
An MPLC Umbrella Licence® gives legal access for the public exhibition of content from more than 1000 rights holders, allowing you to legally view films and TV shows in your setting, though the Annual fee is based on the type and size of location or business.
Learn more about the MPLC Umbrella Licence here: bit.ly/U5-MPLC-Licence.
If you’re unhappy about the price or terms and conditions contained within a licence offered by either of these organisations, you may be able to appeal to the Copyright Tribunal – a court that specialises in deciding disputes over the reasonableness of the price of a licence as well as its terms and conditions.
Licence-free ways of listening
There are, however, a few ways that you can listen to music in your setting that don’t require licence fees:
- Where the period of copyright protection has expired for both the “artistic work” i.e. song or audio-visual film/television programme and its recording (and therefore no longer requires permission from the rights holder to play or perform it). Please note that copyright in an artistic work may expire at a different time from the copyright in the recording.
- If you’ve got talented musicians on staff, or know of any locally, you could commission musical compositions and recordings for your setting. As long as you have the permission of the composer/performer, you won’t have to pay any licence fees.
- If staff and/or children record out of copyright songs themselves.
- You could buy non PRS & PPL music to play in your setting by downloading music as mp3s to your chosen device or have the CD sent to you and receive a certificate confirming exemption from PRS & PPL fees. Though it’s not necessarily a cheaper option, there’s one such company offering this music, which can be found here: bit.ly/U5-AKM-Music.