Open Forum

Find out if your district already has the broad rights to perform those songs. A lot of music is covered by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC which are the three most used performance rights companies in the US. Many school districts purchase licensing with these companies so that all of their choirs and other performing groups can perform the works under their contract with educational purpose. I bet the songs included in this play fall into this, and it is highly likely that you already have the permission to perform these works, and just need to confirm this information. This might include some sort of crediting of the work or other notifications to your audience about the pieces of music and who wrote them and holds the rights, and it might not. Again you have to find that out from your district license, if they have one, for the songs you need. Someone at your district (an arts coordinator maybe if you have one) should have this information and be able to help you. Another resource might be your school or another school's choir director who may have information on these licenses.

No matter what you need to find out who holds the rights to the songs for your performance purposes (probably one of those three companies), what you have to do when you perform the songs to give credit to the proper people/companies, and obtain/verify your license to perform them. Worse case scenario, if your district or school doesn't have a license, these are the companies that you would go to, you would need to find out which ones hold which songs, and you would obtain a license to perform the songs through those companies. Probably not really a high cost at all and these companies will help you and make it easy for you. I hope this helps!

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Kathleen McNulty Mann
mcnulkl@bay.k12.fl.us

Arnold High School Theatre
Panama City Beach, FL
Program Director and Thespian Sponsor

Florida Association for Theatre Education
Board Member
Membership Committee Chair
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ASCAP and BMI do not handle rights for music used in dramatic productions.  Check their web sites.  Or contact them.  I have.  I am not familiar with the other company.  

For straight plays, the publishing companies put the responsibility to get rights to use individual songs on the producing organization by inserting an asterisk and message.  But figuring out who to contact and how to secure permission is time consuming.  

So we are left with the options of not using the specific music, using original music (which does not work when the music is supposed to evoke a particular period of time,) or using a piece of music without securing rights.

I wish someone would come up with a reasonable method of securing rights.  


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C. J. Breland
Asheville High School
Asheville NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-29-2017 12:30
From: Kathleen McNulty
Subject: Music, Copyright, & One-Act Plays

Find out if your district already has the broad rights to perform those songs. A lot of music is covered by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC which are the three most used performance rights companies in the US. Many school districts purchase licensing with these companies so that all of their choirs and other performing groups can perform the works under their contract with educational purpose. I bet the songs included in this play fall into this, and it is highly likely that you already have the permission to perform these works, and just need to confirm this information. This might include some sort of crediting of the work or other notifications to your audience about the pieces of music and who wrote them and holds the rights, and it might not. Again you have to find that out from your district license, if they have one, for the songs you need. Someone at your district (an arts coordinator maybe if you have one) should have this information and be able to help you. Another resource might be your school or another school's choir director who may have information on these licenses.

No matter what you need to find out who holds the rights to the songs for your performance purposes (probably one of those three companies), what you have to do when you perform the songs to give credit to the proper people/companies, and obtain/verify your license to perform them. Worse case scenario, if your district or school doesn't have a license, these are the companies that you would go to, you would need to find out which ones hold which songs, and you would obtain a license to perform the songs through those companies. Probably not really a high cost at all and these companies will help you and make it easy for you. I hope this helps!

------------------------------
Kathleen McNulty Mann
mcnulkl@bay.k12.fl.us

Arnold High School Theatre
Panama City Beach, FL
Program Director and Thespian Sponsor

Florida Association for Theatre Education
Board Member
Membership Committee Chair
------------------------------

Tresona.com can help with all your music rights, and you will not have to try to track down rights holders for each song. That is a hassle because often there are multiple companies for each song.

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Vici Anderson
Theatre Director
El Paso TXTheatre DirectorTheatre DirectorTheatre DirectorTheatre Director
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-29-2017 12:30
From: Kathleen McNulty
Subject: Music, Copyright, & One-Act Plays

Find out if your district already has the broad rights to perform those songs. A lot of music is covered by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC which are the three most used performance rights companies in the US. Many school districts purchase licensing with these companies so that all of their choirs and other performing groups can perform the works under their contract with educational purpose. I bet the songs included in this play fall into this, and it is highly likely that you already have the permission to perform these works, and just need to confirm this information. This might include some sort of crediting of the work or other notifications to your audience about the pieces of music and who wrote them and holds the rights, and it might not. Again you have to find that out from your district license, if they have one, for the songs you need. Someone at your district (an arts coordinator maybe if you have one) should have this information and be able to help you. Another resource might be your school or another school's choir director who may have information on these licenses.

No matter what you need to find out who holds the rights to the songs for your performance purposes (probably one of those three companies), what you have to do when you perform the songs to give credit to the proper people/companies, and obtain/verify your license to perform them. Worse case scenario, if your district or school doesn't have a license, these are the companies that you would go to, you would need to find out which ones hold which songs, and you would obtain a license to perform the songs through those companies. Probably not really a high cost at all and these companies will help you and make it easy for you. I hope this helps!

------------------------------
Kathleen McNulty Mann
mcnulkl@bay.k12.fl.us

Arnold High School Theatre
Panama City Beach, FL
Program Director and Thespian Sponsor

Florida Association for Theatre Education
Board Member
Membership Committee Chair
------------------------------

Tresonamusic.com is the best place for theatre teachers looking to secure rights to a song for a show. HOWEVER, you need to get on it NOW, and you will have to call them frequently to make sure things are getting taken care of.

What's nice is they have some music pre-approved now. So you'll need to make an account, click on "Apply for dramatic rights," choose "Adaptive Dramatic License-Theatrical," and then type in the name of the song you want to use. If it pops up green, you pay and are done. If it's yellow, they'll need to pursue it for you. If it's red, it's not going to be approved. I used them this year to license "Let's Get it On," and a song from the movie "Up." But one song I wanted was owned by two companies, and one company just never responded, so we didn't get the rights. And one song I wanted was owned by George Michael, but all of his music is currently tied up in his estate since he's passed. Music rights are FAR more complex than rights for plays and musicals, so having a company that will help you is SUPER useful.

If you have problems, ask for Aimee when you call them. She's the one who really knows her stuff.

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RaMina Mirmortazavi
Deer Park High School
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