Hi all,
After making about a zillion recordings for my D for camps and schools, I have a friend who called me in a panic for her son’s upcoming audition recordings asking me what I did about all the copyright permissions needed for the auditions.
I was like, huh??? No school or camp website has ever listed any information about this. My take is that it is not necessary. She insisted it was and ran off to consult with a lawyer. I haven’t heard back on the results of that, but I thought I’d turn to you wise people and ask this question.
Is this a thing? Have any of you done this for your students? I was under the impression that since they are not public performances, most of the music is in the public domain and she is not getting paid for the recordings that permissions were not necessary.
I happen to know that composers sometimes have to get permission to use a poem they are setting a work to, but are generally told that there are restrictions only when money is involved. An audition does not involve payment . Musicians applying to schools are not getting paid, as you said, so it’s fine.
Copyrights expire and works go into the public domain. Currently works written in 1923 or before are in the public domain, including musical compositions.
There may be other factors in establishing that a work belongs in the public domain, but time elapsed since the creation of the work is a main criterion.
Is her son playing contemporary pieces?
For audition tapes, in any case, there is no need to worry. Others may chime in…
Question on my mind reading this is whether this might be related to the rights of backing musicians on a given recording. There might be a need to get them to sign rights waivers etc in the event that your audition video goes commercial one way or another. Very remote chances we’re talking about here I guess.
I am not an expert but I have worked with the high school theater dept, a small community theater program and some other experiences would lead me to say…your friend is quite wrong…and if it were an issue, all the schools would be giving instructions on this.
As @compmom says copyrights expire so Mozart…no worries…Bernstein…his “stuff” is still under copyright (my D’s UG university could livestream Mozart but NOT Bernstein due to copyright laws). When a school purchases a production with a copyright there are “stipulations” to its use. There are often different costs…that’s why you’ll see some high school do old shows as they don’t cost as much. When a college does Mozart, I’m not sure how that works as my experience was in MT where most works are still under copyright.
There is something called “fair use”…don’t quote me on that but I think that’s the term…but in general, portions of music, theater or all of a song can be used for non-commercial purposes like competitions, recitals etc. I would think auditions would fall into this category…a non-commercial/educational use thingamabob. I’m fuzzy on this and NOT an expert…but would not be concerned about a student singing/recording a song for an audition/competition.
My D has had to sign “waivers” for her image to be used in marketing materials for plays when she did theater as a kid…maybe now too, but I don’t know as I’m no longer involved. She gets contracts so I would assume there’s some statements on waivers for her image for marketing purposes. As I recall from when she was a kid, the use of images is defined in those contracts to the theater. However that’s different from a copyright. If your kid was going to go commercial with recordings that included other talent…yes you would probably want to discuss that. I don’t know how it works when it goes viral…but in most cases talent that doesn’t protect him/herself (or know too) is probably looking for the “free” exposure.
Once you have an agent, then they start discussing and outlining those protections (mainly to protect their portion of your work). My D has representation for commercial work. I don’t understand it all as she did it (second time now…first didn’t produce much…second has been better). But it is narrowly defined for commercial work and not theater, opera etc. Trust me, she’s still looking for free exposure at this point!
If the music itself is under copyright, fair use can allow you to record it, but with significant limitations.
The Music Teachers National Association has a web page of copyright FAQs that go into detail on what’s allowed. The relevant part in this case would be:
Similarly, Stanford’s fair use explanation includes:
So if you put your prescreen/audition video online and if the music is under copyright, then you probably would be violating copyright (it’s not necessary that you get paid for it in order for it to be a copyright violation). But just the single copy sent to the school for evaluation purposes would seem to be a fair use scenario.
I actually wonder how many classical applicants are playing works written before 1923 in their auditions! It still sounds like things are fine for auditions, just curious.
In the case of the composer I know, the poet’s representatives responded with what they would and wouldn’t allow. So it was the poet’s representatives who said as long as no money was made from use of the poem, it was allowed by them.
@compmom All solo works and excerpts my D recorded for her prescreens were from well before 1923. This might be a bigger issue for Jazz instrumentalists / singers as by definition almost everything they record will be later than 1923…
Yeah that’s why I specified “classical.” As a fan of contemporary classical aka “new music” I have wondered if late 20 th and 21st century works are ever part of the audition repertoire!
Most music written before the 1950’s I believe are not under copyright restrictions. My S auditioned (violin perf) with Dvorak, Bach and Paganini and some etudes, none of which were under copyright. If it’s more modern music, and the composer (or family) still own the permissions, you may need to, but AFAIK, the schools don’t care.