The Waterfront Partnership

Licensing

The acts restricted by copyright law are as follows:

• copying a composition or recording - this includes manufacturing CDs and DVDs, as well as making electronic copies.
• issuing copies of a composition or recording to the public - this includes the sale of music on any medium, whether as part of an audio-only product (for example a CD) or as part of an audio-visual or any other product (for example, a DVD or computer game).
• performance, showing or playing of a composition or recording in public
• broadcasting or inclusion of a composition or recording in a cable programme service
• making adaptation of a composition or an act done in relation to any unauthorised adaptation
• importing an infringing copy of a composition or recording
• possessing or dealing with an infringing copy of a composition or recording
• providing means for making infringing copies of a composition or recording
• permitting use of premises for an infringing performance of a composition or recording
• provision of apparatus for an infringing performance of a composition or recording

If you want to use a musical composition for any of the acts restricted by copyright law, you will need to obtain a licence from the owner of the musical and literary work. To use a pre-existing recording of the composition you will also need a licence from the owner of that recording. Usually the owners of the respective rights will require a fee in exchange for granting the licence.

For certain types of use (primarily for high volume uses, such as the sale of CDs and DVDs and the broadcast of music on radio), the rights owners of musical or literary works and, in some cases, master rights will license their rights to organisations known as collection societies. This is done by registering the rights owner's compositions or recordings with the relevant collection society, who subsequently has the right to collect royalties for the use of the music on the owner's behalf.

The collection societies who collect royalties on the use of music in the United Kingdom are the MCPS-PRS Alliance (formerly the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society and the Performing Right Society), who primarily collect royalties on behalf of composers, and Phonographic Performance Ltd (known as PPL) who collect performance royalties on behalf of the recording artists whose recordings have been commercially released.

Where a collection society cannot grant a licence for a specific use (this will usually be the case for any type of advertising or promotional activity, for use in feature films and for certain television uses, amongst other things), you will need to obtain a licence from the rights owner (or their record company and publisher, if they have one) for the specific use that you want to make. Often you will be required to provide precise details of the use, including a storyboard or script describing the words and pictures that will be spoken and shown while the music is playing.