The Performance License

Before someone may play or perform an artist’s music in public, generally that music must be licensed. A radio station, TV station, a concert hall etc. each need a performance license in order to publicly perform music. The performance of music can imply two sets of associated copyrights: 1) the copyright in the underlying composition or song, and 2) the copyright in the sound recording. A song writer’s performance right for the composition has been around for a long time and the Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) ASCAP, BMI and SESAC have been successfully licensing these rights. A performer or record label’s public performance right for the sound recording is relatively new. Certain amendments to the law in 1995 created a limited performance right for the digital transmission of sound recordings and set up a very complex licensing structure that treats different entities transmitting music differently. The result is a system that has proven difficult to navigate for all parties involved.