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 Two types of copyrights routinely cause frustration and confusion for many church leaders striving to honor copyright compliance. U.S. Copyright Law allows for eight specific types of works of authorship that can be copyrighted , and two of these are frequently misunderstood. They are music (or songs) – including any accompanying words, and sound recordings – aural reproduction of some material (music, speech or sound), which may or may not itself be copyrighted. It’s understandable that folks struggle to separate the two. For example, when your worship team needs to make copies of “God of Wonders” as recorded by Paul Baloche for rehearsal purposes, it’s a common misconception that you just need one license to do so. In fact, the song (written by Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong) is a music copyright and owned by a the songwriter or publisher, in this case New Spring, Meaux Mercy and Storm Boy Music. Paul Baloche’s specific arrangement, rendition and recording of the song is a sound recording copyright and it is owned by the record label, in this case, Integrity Music. The music copyright is usually owned by the songwriter or one or more publishers, and the sound recording is owned by a separate party–the artist or more often a record company. The owner of the sound recording can usually be determined by locating the P symbol on the back of the CD. Note: the owner of the sound recording is often NOT the owner of the song.
It’s very important to grasp this basic distinction between songs and sound recordings to plan for obtaining licenses and paying royalties, as it impacts a variety of types of uses, exclusive rights, licensing types and fees.
  What do Jimmy Fallon and Bananrama have to do with your church’s video productions? They were both involved in recent examples of how failing to plan for copyright issues can minimize the value of the videos on which you spend so much time and effort. In Jimmy Fallon’s case, he and NBC creates some sensational productions for the Emmys, that they could not put on the web because of poor planning. In Bananrama’s case, videos containing their song “Cruel Summer” were pulled from campaign websites for the same reason. Let’s take a look at what happened in each case.
As PaidContent reported:
Host Jimmy Fallon knocked it out of the park with an energetic Glee-esque opener to Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, a mixed pre-taped and live-action number featuring Jane Lynch, Glee kids, Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, and a cameo by Tim Gunn that quickly got social media buzz. The clip should have been online before the next commercial break for NBC to take advantage of that buzz—and to take ownership before others started passing it around.
Another number paying tribute to the end of 24, Law & Orderand Lost, part of it with Fallon channeling Elton John, seemed destined to catch on, at least with fans of those shows. But @NBCLA tweeted back when I mentioned that the videos has yet to post: “Wish we could, but we have restrictions on what we can post online.” A spokeswoman later suggested by e-mail that music rights are the issue.
Let’s read between the lines and see what happened here. Television and radio stations buy licenses from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC that give them permission to broadcast their performances of copyrighted songs. So Jimmy’s skits are covered right? Well, yes they are covered for transmission on television because NBC affiliates have their performance licenses that cover their television and cable broadcasts. On the other (more important) hand, those licenses do not cover their distribution on the web. Because they did not secure the web rights up front, NBC has been unable to put some of those performances online because they were unable (or unwilling to pay the asking price) to secure licensing for internet distribution. As a result, they wasted on opportunity to redistribute some important parts of their show. Continue reading Jimmy Fallon, Bananarama and church video productions
When times are tough and belts are tightening, some churches have difficulty justifying payment of song royalties. It can seem a little superfluous to pay for the use of music when cuts are being made in so many critical areas. An article in yesterday’s New York Times contained a passage that addresses one of [...]
Great question about a subject that is gaining a lot of interest among churches and ministries. Performance licensing is an important copyright concept. Fortunately, it is also one of the simplest to understand and easiest to acquire.
@CopyrightSolver Can you help? Want to play music at a fund-raiser for nonprofit org and create a ppt pres [...]
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