When sports and fitness routines are set to music (performance sports), proper licensing is essential for routines and performances, as well as subsequently using footage of events online. As a result, athletes, performers, teams, federations and event producers must act responsibly in respecting music copyright and address its use, for three primary reasons:

• It’s the Law

• It Helps Grow Your Sport

• It Supports Music Creators

THE PROBLEM

WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?

Performance Sports Teams and Performing Arts groups worldwide that use music have to address and respect its copyrighted use. Usually, an individual or group of individuals who authored the work (song) will exclusively own the work or copyright. If music is used without the proper licenses, the end user can be held liable for copyright infringement, and unfortunately, ‘not knowing’ is not a valid defense.

Copyright law exists in most countries in the world and arises when a qualifying work is created by an individual or company. Neither publication, registration, nor other action is required to secure a copyright, although in some countries use of a copyright notice is recommended, and in a few countries (including the United States) registration of domestic works is required in order to sue for infringement.

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Usually, an individual or group of individuals who authored the work will exclusively own the work.

In each piece of recorded music, there are two aspects to copyright:

i) the recorded performance of the song, and

ii) the lyrics, melody etc. created by the writers of the song.

Therefore each song is owned by two sets of copyright owners:

The artist(s) who record each version of that song (whether a worldwide hit or an anonymous cover version) own rights in the sound recording of their version.

These are called ‘master rights’.

The you have the 'publishing rights' who cover the people who wrote the song and control the musical composition of the song: Lyrics, melody, etc. ​ Normally several writers have a % share in each song which can range from less than 1% to 100%.

Typically, there are several writers who each have a % share in each song which can range from less than 1% to 100%.

Each writer will own a certain percentage of the song depending on their contribution to the writing process.

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In order to license music for your sport, you need a license from EVERY rightsholder for both the Master and Publishing sides.

THE TRADITIONAL MUSIC LICENSING PROCESS

Before ClicknClear, to license music, you’d need to follow the traditional music licensing process which looks like this:

You’d need to make sure ALL copyright owners have approved the license before you can use it.

This process can be very expensive and time consuming.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

Copyright infringement refers to the use of a copyrighted work without the permission of the copyright holder, and remember, ‘not knowing’ is not a valid defense against copyright infringement, and the infringing party can still be sued. In the United States, a fine of up to $150,000 applies to each song that is infringed on in each infringement! This amount varies in different countries and can also include a prison sentence in some cases.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

The public domain refers to works that are no longer protected by copyright (that is, where the copyright has expired). There are different expiration times depending on the country and the side of music rights held. Typically, the Master rights exist for 50 years from date of release and publishing rights exist for 70-90 years from the date of the last living writer.

There is currently no database of works that are in the public domain, so extensive research needs to be done in order to ensure the work can be used.

THE MUSIC RIGHTS REQUIRED FOR YOUR SPORT

There is often misleading information about what rights are required for your sport to make a mix of music to accompany your routine.

Below is a breakdown of the rights that are needed to use a song in your routine mix:

In order to use one song for any of the above uses, you need a license from both the recording artist, and each of the songwriters.

ClicknClear offer all of these rights with our standard license for $10-$25 per song, per mix for 1 years use.

To learn more about music copyright for performance sports, check out our explainer video below:

Interested in diving deeper into music copyright?