Music Licensing in the Video Streaming Era
By: Alan Brandt and Jameson Tibbs Prior to the unprecedented disruptions of 2020 many of us looked forward to going to a concert, play or recital. Although the pandemic took us out of our familiar venues, we quickly adapted to find new avenues for entertainment. As we adjust to doing less in public spaces and more in virtual spaces, streaming entertainment has become a booming business. However, whether your event is in person or virtual, sharing someone else’s music still requires that you obtain the appropriate music licenses or risk the consequences of copyright infringement. To understand music licensing, it helps to understand the difference between musical works and sound recordings. A musical work consists of the notes that make up the melody and any accompanying lyrics. A sound recording is a recording of the performance of the musical work. Quite often, there will be separate owners for the musical work and the sound recording; each with a separate copyright. To complicate matters, each...