RESEARCH: GETTING PERMISSION TO USE MUSIC

Music Publisher Contacts

Obtaining permission to use music is sometimes a little more confusing than obtaining permission to use other types of copyrighted works, because there are two different rights in any piece of recorded music: the rights to the song itself, which is what can be written on sheet music, and the rights to the particular recording. The songwriter(s) owns the rights to the song itself, but generally grants those rights to a "music publisher" to administer the rights. A particular recording of the song (what's on the CD) is generally owned by the record company that released the CD. If you want to use a recording of a song, you have to get permission from both the music publisher (to use the song itself) and the record company (to use the recording). Sometimes, people choose to make their own recording of a song. If this is what you want to do, then the only permission you would need to obtain is permission to use the song, which you would obtain from the music publisher(s). Also please be aware that songs can be owned by more than one music publisher. You need to obtain permission from all of the publishers who own copyrights in a song in order to use that song.

The easiest way to find the contact information for a music publisher is through ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. These organizations are called "performing rights societies;" their web site addresses are www.ascap.com, www.bmi.com and www.sesac.com. All songwriters and music publishers have to belong to one of these organizations, but membership is exclusive so each songwriter can be a member of only one of these organizations. If you go to the ASCAP site and you don't find the title you are looking for, chances are the song is represented by either BMI or SESAC. Also some songs are written by more than one songwriter, one of who may be with ASCAP and another with BMI and/or SESAC. Unfortunately, the performing rights societies will only give out the publisher information for the writers they represent. Therefore, if you want to use a song written by writers from different societies, you will need to go to each society's web site to find all of the publisher information. The label on the CD or cassette often indicates which performing rights society represents the writer of a particular song.