HUGE news: Introducing School Music License
Holy moly!!! I just found out from a colleague in the industry about a brand new venture called School Music License. I cannot overstate just how BIG a deal this is for licensing music for schools. Until now, if your school wanted to do any of the following things with a piece of copyrighted music:
Stream your school concert videos online (YouTube, Vimeo)
Include song lyrics in a concert program or display them on a screen
Showcase your school music program on a website or streaming platform
Capture video of a dance recital, Winter Color Guard performance or sporting event that uses popular music recordings
Secure licensing for school band, choir, orchestra, and glee club concert videos, plus your marching band, recitals, pep rallies, gymnastics meets, and so much more!
you would have to go through a long and confusing process to actually get the rights to do these things. While many don’t, US Copyright Law says that you do
While licensing for things like this already exist for corporations and houses of worship, up until now, the only way to do ANY of these things was to find out who the copyright holder was, contact them with a request to use their content, wait for an answer (sometimes for a LONG time), and then negotiate a fee to license the copyrighted work legally. With School Music License, you can do all of that quickly, easily, and affordably. I am THRILLED to see this model come to life, and applaud the team at GIA Publications for making it happen. BRAVO!
So how does it work? Very simple. If you have a composition(s) that you are performing and would like to promote, visit the School Music License site, create a free account for your school music program, then find the work(s) that you would like to license in the School Music License database (currently ten million songs from over 6,000 music publishers and growing), and decide if you want an Annual Basic License (based on the size of your school or organization) and whether or not you’d like to add on a Master Recording License.
The Annual Basic License allows you to pre-record, live-stream, or archive live performances of any included songs: school band, choir, orchestra, and glee club concert performances, marching band performances, dance recitals, pep rallies, and so much more! That recording can then be shared to your organization’s website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts. The Annual Basic License also allows you to reprint / reproduce the lyrics of any approved song in your school program.
The Master Recording Bundle License is an optional add-on to the Annual Basic License and is VERY cool. It gives you a blanket license to use those recordings for dance recitals, gymnastics meets, poms and cheer performances, and sporting events. You can then share those performances and competitions online, including your organization’s website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat accounts. This bundle combines both the Annual Basic License and the Master Recording license into one easy annual payment.
These licenses are the first of their kind for schools in the US, and I am so happy to see this. Music teachers either don’t license the music at all (and then get into trouble when the use is caught by publishers) OR don’t know how to license the music properly. School Music License solves this issue and I personally think that every school should immediately purchase one to cover a LOT of the music you probably use with your ensembles and groups. While There are some publishers that haven’t signed up yet, I am hopeful that they will.
“School Music License is the culmination of an eight-year effort to provide U.S. schools with an easy way to confidently record and stream all of the great performances with music—proudly for parents, grandparents, students, and the community—while at the same time providing fair compensation to those who create the wonderful music schools perform,” said Alec Harris, President of GIA Publications and School Music License. “Everyone wins!”
School Music License eliminates the frustration teachers and educational institutions experience when they try to “do the right thing” to obtain authorization from copyright owners for their use of copyrighted music. “I couldn’t be more excited to finally bring this service to life,” said Brenna C. Horn-Cronin, Executive General Manager. “Our team has built a user-friendly platform that makes securing copyright permissions for video streams or lyrics easy. Teachers should spend time rehearsing and practicing with their students—not struggling with another administrative task!”
Well done, Alec & Brenna. This is a HUGE step forward for music teachers and school districts!
