Inquiry regarding college events where music is performed by students

[OhioCollegeStud]

Ohio

Hi everyone,

I had a question regarding the legality of performing songs (singing, dancing, and providing musical accompaniment) in front of thousands of people (or even relatively large groups for that matter).

This would include events such as battle of the bands and the like. One thing that comes to mind that a lot of colleges do is have a song and dance competition among organizations (generally greek organizations). I know this happens all over the place. At some colleges DVDs are even sold of these events which thousands of people go to. At these events, every year there is usually a theme. Some of the themes include movies, broadway, rock and roll, and anything you can think of that relates to music.

My question is, which it seems rather obvious, is this copyright infringement? I have a feeling that performing music that you do not have a license to along with selling DVD's of the performances isnt exactly legal. Even if such an event is put on by a student organization of a university, Im fairly certain that they dont automatically have the rights to a variety of songs/productions or even the right to assume "fair use".

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[BelizeBreeze]

Ohio

Hi everyone,

I had a question regarding the legality of performing songs (singing, dancing, and providing musical accompaniment) in front of thousands of people (or even relatively large groups for that matter).

This would include events such as battle of the bands and the like. One thing that comes to mind that a lot of colleges do is have a song and dance competition among organizations (generally greek organizations). I know this happens all over the place. At some colleges DVDs are even sold of these events which thousands of people go to. At these events, every year there is usually a theme. Some of the themes include movies, broadway, rock and roll, and anything you can think of that relates to music.

My question is, which it seems rather obvious, is this copyright infringement? I have a feeling that performing music that you do not have a license to along with selling DVD's of the performances isnt exactly legal. Even if such an event is put on by a student organization of a university, Im fairly certain that they dont automatically have the rights to a variety of songs/productions or even the right to assume "fair use".

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

the answer to your question depends entirely on what songs are being played and whether or not the college/university has a blanket copyright agreement with any of the licensing authorities.

 

[OhioCollegeStud]

These include musicals (including brand new ones) and almost any song you can think of along with movie references and the like. It really reaches quite far and I would think that the universities wouldnt have blanket agreements for everything around.

 

[divgradcurl]

It really reaches quite far and I would think that the universities wouldnt have blanket agreements for everything around.

You might be suprised -- many venues, from concert halls down to small night clubs, have these sorts of "blanket" licenses, and they are usually priced based on the number of seats, not the breadth or variety of music being played.

Again, check with your university, they may already have all of the necessary licenses in place.