When an arranger is making a custom arrangement of a copyrighted musical composition for an ensemble licensed by Tresóna, the arranger may not transfer the sheet music of the arrangement to the school without the sheet music of the custom arrangement being properly licensed. Licensed means approved, the work for hire agreement signed, the license is paid for, and the sheet music of the arrangement has been uploaded into the Tresóna LIcensing Exchange.
The arranger places themselves in a position of being a direct infringer of the copyright when these steps are not followed, and a promise by a a client to pay for the custom arrangement license for the sheet music does not absolve the arranger of his responsibility for the infringement of the composition.
Arrangers should always transfer the sheet music of the custom arrangements they are creating according to the terms of the EULA they have signed with Tresóna for their use of the Licensing Exchange.
Those terms are:
In the case of Arrangement Licenses and DDVRs, these licenses will perfect after the following four steps have taken place:
a) when the arranger has signed the work for hire agreement digitally through the license exchange, and
b) when payment for the license has been received by Tresóna, and
c) when the sheet music of the arrangement (the score and parts) are uploaded into the Licensing Exchange as a PDF, and
d) when the sheet music of the arrangement has been downloaded by the ensemble director.
If steps a through d are not completed for the issuance of an Arrangement License or DDVR, there is no valid license granted by Tresóna.
An arranger who provides a client with sheet music of the arrangement that has not yet been approved or paid for will be liable for the infringement of the copyright.
A mechanical reproduction license only permits you to make and distribute copies of a song, including a musical arrangement of the song, as embodied in a “sound recording.” It does not permit you to make physical or digital copies of the musical arrangement in music notation for any purpose, including the printing of copies or digital dissemination of the musical notation containing the arrangement for the purpose of making the recording, for resale, or even to facilitate a public performance of the song. The term “musical arrangement” is not synonymous with “sheet music” (whether digital or physical music notation).
If you wish to print or make copies of a musical arrangement, whether you made the arrangement for inclusion in a sound recording or not, you must get an additional license: a “Custom Arrangement License,” which can be easily obtained from a licensing agent like Tresona.
Background
In order to legally record a copyrighted song in the U.S., and make and distribute copies of the song as part of a sound recording, you must obtain a mechanical reproduction license (“mechanical license”).
The U.S. Copyright Act allows you to compel a copyright owner to give you a license to do so if you carefully comply with certain regulatory procedures, but most mechanical licenses are more easily obtained either through an organization like the Harry Fox Agency or directly from the song’s music publisher.
These voluntary mechanical licenses are granted on virtually the same terms as the statutory compulsory license, which is described in Section 115 of the Copyright Act.
Each mechanical license tells you what you can do and what you can’t do with the song.
For example, the mechanical license allows you to record, make and distribute the song as part of a “sound recording.” It does not allow you to record, make or distribute the song as part of an “audiovisual work,” a printed work (such as, sheet music), or any other kind of work (such as, a book or a computer program).
To make this clear, the Copyright Act states that the mechanical license only allows you “to make and distribute phonorecords of the work” and that one may obtain one “only if his or her primary purpose in making phonorecords is to distribute them to the public for private use….”
The mechanical license “includes the privilege of making a musical arrangement” of the song, but
And even then, you cannot get copyright protection for the arrangement without the express consent of the copyright owner.
Note: The term “musical arrangement" is not synonymous with the term “sheet music.” Just because your mechanical license permits you to make a musical arrangement for inclusion in a sound recording, it does not mean you have the right to create digital notation and or print sheet music of the arrangement for dissemination in any manner. For that, you would require a Custom Arrangement License.
Examples
1. Suppose Adele wishes to record a version of the Bob Dylan composition “Make You Feel My Love.” For her recording, Adele creates a new arrangement of the song with different voicing and instrumentation, but which does not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the song. Because the musicians in Adele's band are professional and the song is relatively simple, the musicians can simply play the song without needing to create physical or digital sheet music of the arrangement Adele will perform.
Under her mechanical license, Adele:
2. Suppose the musical director of a choir wishes to make a recording of "Can't Stop The Feeling," written by Max Martin, Shellback, and Justin Timberlake and arranged by Mac Huff, and the choir director obtains the proper number of octavos as published by Hal Leonard so that he has appropriate copies of the sheet music to give to each member of the choir. During the recording, the choir director tells the members of the choir that he would like them to repeat the last chorus twice.
3. Suppose the musical director of a choir makes his own custom musical arrangement of the song or hires a professional arranger to do so. He then obtains a mechanical license to make a sound recording of the song.
The bottom line is: the mechanical license is solely a vehicle for the production and distribution of sound recordings. It does not grant you permission to print physical notation of the arrangement or create digital notation or sheet music of the arrangement, whether or not embodied in the sound recording. For this, one would require a Custom Arrangement License, like the one issued by Tresóna. If one is making a recording, and one finds that the recording cannot be made without creating physical or digital sheet music of the "musical arrangement" being recorded, then one must seek additional permission, beyond the mechanical license, to create that sheet music.
The term "sheet music" means the phsyical or digital representation of music notation.
A work for hire agreement (as it relates to the arranger of a copyrighted piece of music defined in the United States Copyright Act of 1976) is an agreement that indicates that the arranger who is creating sheet music of an arrangement of a musical composition under copyright protection is agreeing that the arranger will have no ownership position or claim in the finished arrangement embodied in the sheet music, in the sheet music itself, or any ownership rights in the underlying copyright of the c beoposition being arranged.
This specifically means that the new arrangement and the sheet music embodying the new arrangement is the property of the rights holder(s) or publishers. The arranger may not distribute the arrangement or sheet music embodying the arrangement to any other ensemble other than the ensemble that was issued the custom arrangement license without the permission of the publisher or rights holder.
A work for hire agreement is a standard agreement in the music publishing industry and is required for all custom arrangement licenses processed through the Tresóna Exchange. The arranger linked to each request is responsible for signing this agreement.
Licenses issued by Tresóna for the creation of a custom arrangement and of sheet music that contains the arrangement, whether in digital or physical form, which includes the right to print out a copy for each member of the licensed ensemble, are only issued after the following for steps have occured. This passage is copied from our EULA, which each arranger and director must agree to before obtaining an account with Tresóna.
From the EULA:
In the case of Arrangement Licenses and DDVRs, these licenses will perfect after the following four steps have taken place:
a) when the arranger has signed the work for hire agreement digitally through the license exchange, and
b) when payment for the license has been received by Tresóna, and
c) when the arrangement (the score and parts) are uploaded into the Licensing Exchange as a PDF, and
d) when the arrangement has been downloaded by the ensemble director.
If steps a through d are not completed for the issuance of an Arrangement License or DDVR, there is no valid license granted by Tresóna.
The ownership of sheet music does not allow one to perform the music publicly without a performance license. The rights are seperate rights, and if performing music publicly, it is proper to have a performance license. The phrase "All Rights Reserved", that is generally printed at the bottom of the copyright music on stock sheet music means that all rights that relate to the copyrighted composition contained in the sheet music musit be licensed. These rights could include Grand Rights, Synchronization Rights, Mechanical Rights, and Performance Rights. To learn more about performance rights, click here.
Tresóna is a platform that helps connect licensees with rightsholders and that makes acquiring licenses as easy as possible for both parties. As such, we don't set license prices - those are set by the rights holders themselves (typically, music publishers).
We've seen license prices ranging from about $150 to over $1,000, depending on an ensemble's details (like ensemble type, organization type, number of performers, length of use, and other publisher-dependent factors).
Since each publisher prices its own compositions independently of Tresóna and other publishers, we aren't able to provide a firm price quote up front.
Additionally, each composition within a medley is priced according to the other compositions within that medley, so we aren't able to provide a firm price on any one composition in a medley until we have received publishers' prices for all compositions within that medley.
To get a firm price quote, you can follow the steps below.
This can happen when you submit a request that contains more than one composition, as each composition's price is determined by the price of every other composition in the same request. Here's an example of how this works:
In this example, the higher price of the second composition triggered a price increase for the first composition in the same request. Even though you already paid for the first composition, you'll need to pay the difference between what you've already paid and the new price of the composition.
While we do our best to get prices from publishers up front, publishers are free to change their prices as they see fit and thus we're not able to provide price quotes with 100% accuracy until all compositions within a request are approved.
Tresóna is responsible for paying out licensing royalties on a pro rata basis to all publishers and co-publishers for all compositions licensed. Tresóna certifies to its publishers and to its ensembles and arrangers that all music it disseminates and all licenses it issues are copyright compliant. This requires that Tresóna confirm that the licenses it issues meet the publisher standards for validity. We do not have the ability to determine whether a license issued from a third party that is presented to us is valid or valid for use with a medley, nor do we have the ability to know whether or not all of the publishers have been paid out pro rata. If a mistake was made, and Tresóna had accidentally disseminated material that was not properly licensed, Tresóna could be liable for damages.
Therefore, for each medley we license, we must license all of the individual compositions involved in that medley (request) together, or we cannot license any of the songs in the medley at all.
Tresóna's Licensing Exchange is designed to be used by music publishers, ensemble staff members, and music arrangers directly. Tresóna has made substantial technological advancements that provide DRM protection for rights holders, arrangers, and the ensembles requesting licenses, and there is no way for Tresóna to be able to fulfill its obligations to the publishers and rights holders that it serves without having the arrangers who are creating the arrangements and the staff member from the music organization digitally executing the work for hire agreements and various restriction acknowledgements. Therefore, Tresóna does not work with third party licensing agencies, and they may not use the License Exchange on behalf of their clients.
Interjecting third party agents into the process for executing these documents on behalf of some of the ensembles and arrangers also adds considerable administrative cost in issuing the licenses, reduces the reliability and speed of the system, and increases the overall costs of the licenses for everyone. Tresóna has worked hard to simplify the licensing process for ensembles, arrangers and the publishers, has increased the transparency and speed of the licensing process for everyone, and has added tracking tools to help ensure everyone knows whether their music has a valid license.
The benefit of the automation behind the License Exchange is that the cost of obtaining music licenses has been reduced by more than 40% since the the License Exchange opened for business. There are no up-front fees, no cancellation fees, and there is complete transparency between the licensees and music publishers.