Music Copyright

COMMERCIAL MUSIC

Commercial music covers any CDs, audio cassettes, or even vinyls that you can buy in high street outlets: in effect, most of the music you will be familiar with and therefore tempted to use to enhance your own materials. The costs and bureaucracy involved in clearing rights for commercial music can be extremely burdensome. Three separate rights are involved –those of the record company, the composers and the music publisher – and all three can request payment, or even deny permission at all. MCPS is the main collecting society acting on behalf of the music publisher and composer, and the Phonographic Performance Ltd deals with the sound recording rights on behalf of record labels. If you wish to copy commercial music, these are the two agencies you should contact for further advice on licensing. You can expect to be asked the purpose of the material you are producing, as well as all the other details such as timings, distribution area, prices if applicable. Prices of licences will vary enormously.

MCPS website:
Web: http://www.mcps.co.uk/
(includes links to other organisations involved in the music industry)