Music factsheet 11: Copyright and the Dance Teacher

Introduction
Dance teachers are affected by copyright issues mainly as a result of using music in classes. As soon as you start using music as part of your business - dance teaching - you need to get a licence. This factsheet introduces some of the key concepts and terms in copyright, and how it affects the dance teacher. For Frequently Asked Questions about PRS & PPL licences and the RAD syllabus, please see Factsheet 12.

• 1. What in copyright means
• 2. What copyright protects and prohibits: rights and royalties
• 3. Music licences for dance teaching
• 4. Music licenses and permissions for performances and choreography
• 5. What if I don’t comply with copyright law?
• 6. Examples of copyright permission problems in ballet
• 7. What do I need to do about licensing my school?
• 8. Exemptions
• 9. Links

1. What ‘in copyright’ means
In most countries, original musical, dramatic and artistic works are protected by copyright until: 

• 70 years after the creator’s death  70 years after the death of the last living contributor in a work which has been created by more than one person,
• 70 years after the death of the arranger, if a work which is otherwise out of copyright (such as a folk song or a piece by Mozart, for example) has been arranged 
• 25 years after a new edition of an otherwise out of copyright work is published (this is called the ‘graphic’ or ‘typographic right’)
• Works which are out of copyright (non-copyright) are said to be ‘in the public domain’.
• Note that for sound recordings, copyright expires 50 years after the date of the recording  [back to top]

2. What copyright protects and prohibits: rights and royalties

Assuming that the use of their music has been licensed and paid for, composers or copyright owners are due royalties

• every time their music is performed (“Peforming Rights”) 
• every time their music is recorded (“Mechanical Rights”)
• every time their music is used in a film (“Synchronization rights”)
• every time their music is used for a stage play or ballet (“Grand Rights”) every time their music is printed

Copyright also subsists in: 

• Sound recordings (called ‘phonographic copyright, and represented by the sign  (a ‘P’ in a circle).  For more information on this in the UK, refer to Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL)
• Printed music – whether original compositions or arrangements.  The Music Publishers Association in the UK can advise more on this subject.

Copyright is known as a ‘negative right’ – in other words, it tends to prohibit and restrict, rather than permit people to do things (with the exception of the composer, the author of any associated words and in the case of published music, the music publisher, who are the only beneficiaries of the ‘positive right’ in copyright).  The things that you cannot do under copyright law are called ‘restricted acts’, and if you do them, they are called ‘copyright infringements’. 

Under copyright law, restricted acts are as follows:  

• You may not copy the work without permission 
• You may not perform the work without permission 
• You may not record the work without permission 
• You may not arrange, adapt or cut the work without permission
• You may not adapt the music to a film, play, ballet or other stage work without permission 
• You may not use the music in such a way that might denigrate the original intention of the composer (called ‘detrimental use’ of music)

If you want to do one of the restricted acts, then you need to apply for a licence. Licences are processed mainly by collecting societies (licensing bodies) rather than individual creators or publishers. However, when you choreograph to music which is in copyright, you need to gain permission to do so, and this has to be done directly with the publisher or composer.  [back to top]

3. Music licenses for dance teaching 
 If you own a dance school, you generally need two licenses to use music:

• A yearly venue-licence from a performing rights collecting society such as the Performing Right Society (PRS) in the UK, or APRA in Australia and so on. The money from this is distributed to composers, publishers and any estates.
  You would only be entitled to a waiver on performing rights if all the music that you play in a class were out of copyright. As soon as even one piece of music that you use is in copyright, you must pay for a blanket licence. 
• A yearly licence from a phonographic rights collecting agency such as Phonographic Performance Ltd in the UK (PPL) or PPCA in Australia. The money from this is distributed to record companies and performers on recordings, via their record companies.
• You would not need a PPL licence if you never use recorded music at all in your classes; but if you play background music in the reception area, for example, you will need a PPL and a PRS licence.
• If you have transferred music from CDs to another format such as an iPod, MP3 player, laptop or other storage device, or made your own mix CDs, you will need, in the UK at least, an annual ProDub licence
•   [back to top]

4. Music licenses and permissions for performances and choreography
Where permission and licences are needed to perform or record music alone (for example, in a concert, or on an audio recording), you can deal with licensing agencies such as the PRS or MCPS in the UK, or APRS and AMCOS in Austalia, who will issue licences and collect royalties on the composers’ and publishers’ behalf.

It is important to understand the difference between licences and permissions – just because you have a license to play music in a theatre, that does not mean that you automatically have permission to perform a ballet to it without the consent of the composer or publisher.

If music is in copyright, and you want to choreograph to it, you need to negotiate directly with the composer or publisher of the work in question.  The composer may refuse permission to have their work choreographed to (see section 6, Examples of Copyright Permission Problems in Ballet). If they agree to let you perform your work, they will negotiate a fee with you, based on the type of performance and size of the theatre.  This fee is not always onerous, particularly if the publishers are sympathetic to student work. On the other hand, some companies & composers may not be interested in putting effort into collecting relatively small amounts of money, and may therefore let your request sit at the bottom of a pile for weeks, or charge you full rates.   [back to top]

5. What if I don’t comply with copyright law?

• Worst case scenario: fines, court cases, impounding of materials, or an injunction preventing you from continuing your business or show
• Fairly bad scenario: you invest time and money in a project which has to be scrapped at the last minute for copyright reasons
• Common scenario: you will be charged more retrospectively for using music than if you had gone through the proper channels in the first place
• Best scenario: allow enough time to apply for a licence before public performance   [back to top]

6. Examples of copyright permission problems in ballet
In some cases, getting permission and arranging licenses is easy: you decide what you want to do, ring up the publisher, they say 'yes, OK', send you a contract, you pay, you go, you choreograph. But it's worth realising that sometimes, copyright issues can cause interminable delays in getting a work performed, or prevent it happening altogether. The question to ask then is not  'so how do I sort it out?' but 'which music shall I use instead'.  Below are just a few examples:

• Peter Schaufuss’s ballet The King (1999) using music of Elvis Presley, was allowed to be performed in Denmark, but was cancelled in Scotland, then had to be quickly re-written when it toured to the UK. 
• Eliot Feld’s ballet Endsong (1991) originally set to Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs has been performed in silence, ever since the Strauss estate refused permission for the music to be used for a ballet. Nonetheless, four other choreographers are allowed to use this music, because their use of it predates the estate’s decision, which was not applied retroactively. 
• The music for Ashton’s Monotones is by Erik Satie, who died in 1925, and is therefore out of copyright. Two of the sections were orchestrated by Debussy (d. 1918), and are also out of copyright. The rest of the score is orchestrated by Roland-Manuel and John Lanchbery, both of whom are still in copyright.  
• The music for the opera Prince Igor was written by Borodin who died in 1887. However, parts of the opera were arranged by Rimsky-Korsakov & Glazunov. The former died in 1908, but the latter only in 1936 – which means that until the end of 2006, the Glazunov estate still collected royalties on Borodin’s work.  This was only the case, however, since 1996 when UK law was harmonized with European law (from death + 50 years to death + 70 years), so for the ten years between 1986-1996, Glazunov, too, was out of copyright.
• Due to the Copyright Term Extension Act (1998) in the USA, many Russian works, including selections from Romeo & Juliet (Prokofiev) and The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) which were previously non-copyright in the US (but in copyright elsewhere) have now gone back into copyright.  [back to top]
  

7. What licences do I need as a dance teacher?
If you use music for dance teaching, make sure that you have

• A venue licence for performing rights (e.g. a PRS licence)
• A licence to play recorded music, or music in TV or radio programmes (e.g. a PPL licence)
• If you make your own compilations of music, a ProDub licence to transfer music to iPod or other digital storage device
• Always check that the buildings you have hired have the required licences. Do not assume that people are correct when they tell you that they’re ‘covered’ – many people do not understand copyright, especially where dance is concerned. If in doubt, ask one of the relevant collecting societies or publishers.

If you use music for choreography & performance:

• Check whether the music you want to use is in copyright or not
• If it is, contact the publishers of the music, or the composer directly. They will want to know how many performances you intend to do, how many seats the theatre holds, and what other pieces will be on the programme (i.e. what proportion of the evening your piece occupies) 
• If you want to make cuts or arrangements to the score, you will need to send these to the publisher/composer for approval  
• If you are using a recording, you will need to contact the record company for a licence to do so
• If you are commissioning a composer to write music for you, make sure that all fees, royalty payments, and permissions have been agreed in writing long in advance of the first performance.
• If you are performing a choreographic work which is not by you, remember that the choreography may be in copyright, too, and you will have to seek permission and pay for this.  [back to top]

8. Exemptions
In copyright terminology, the notion of ‘fair use’ (or ‘educational use’)  allows people to do otherwise restricted acts in the course of research or education, or for private use. However, music in the context of dance classes is not seen as ‘educational’ in terms of copyright legislation, and must be paid for. Choreography may be performed to music without permission, but only in the company of fellow students and staff in the context of a lesson – not in public performance. [back to top]

9. Links

• BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) – Links to collecting societies around the world. Every country has its own licensing body (collecting agency). If you are not sure of the name of the relevant agency in your country, this is a good place to start looking.
• Copyright collecting societies around the world. A list from Wikipedia, similar to the one above,
• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988) (UK). This is the Act in which all the details of UK copyright are enshrined. Although it is phrased in fairly specialist language, sometimes it's just easier to read the original document than read everyone else's interpretation of it.
• Copyright: About copyright, from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Quick introductions to copyright from the place that ought to know best: the Intellectual Property Office.
• Copyright resource Centre from the Music Publishers’ Association of America. Plenty of links to further information about copyright and music.
• Music and Dance Copyright: article from Boosey & Hawkes. This doesn't happen very often: a music publisher that offers specialist advice on how to deal with music and copyright in dance works.
• PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd) . PPL collect royalties from public performance of sound recordings. You will need a PPL licence if you use recorded music in your school. You will also need a PRS licence (see below)
• PRS for Music (music for businesses page). PRS for Music (formerly called just 'PRS' or 'PRS-MCPS Alliance') is the organization that distributes royalties to composers, arrangers & lyricists. You will need a PRS licence for your dance school.
• Whose right, who's right: how to get the rights to choreograph to copyrighted music (from Dance Magazine, 1995). This article does what it says in the title: though there may be some local or particular differences, if you read this in conjunction with the Boosey & Hawkes page, you will begin to get a clear picture of how to go about obtaining permission to use copyright music for choreography.  [back to top]