Long story short…
Licenses protect the composer and recording right in a song, and there are two licenses:
Dubbing (or reproduction) which covers the right to provide tracks to each site – and Public Performance, which covers the right to play music in a public space.
Licensing bodies. APRA, AMCOS and PPCA/ARIA are separate copyright bodies. However OneMusic – which formed in 2019 – facilitates the licensing arrangements through an umbrella licensing agreement.
When a business music provider (BMP) is engaged to supply the music, the BMP is responsible for paying the Dubbing License fees (to “Dub”). The client is responsible for the Public Performance fees (to “Play”) and can either elect to manage them, or where the BMP has an Agency agreement with OneMusic, arrange for the BMP to manage the group license on their behalf.
As a business music provider (BMP), Soundmark has a formal Background Music, Agency-representation arrangement with OneMusic Australia and OneMusic NZ (separate entities). We recommend to all of our clients to take advantage of Soundmark managing their OneMusic fees where feasible.
Long story with some in depth facts & history…
Music Licensing can be a little confusing. Let’s look at the life of a track to explain how it works for activities that record, reproduce and play back recorded tracks….
When an artist composes a track, a publishing or composer “right” is created. This right usually sits with the composers of the song, or their representatives – most often a publishing house.
Parties who wish to reproduce or “dub” the song require a reproduction license to do so. They can approach the owners of the copyright or take out a “blanket” dubbing license with The Australian Mechanical Copyright Association – AMCOS – which has an arrangement to represent Independent Artists and Publishing Houses for certain dubbing music rights.
Background music is one of them, and a background music provider (BMP) can take out a blanket background music license with AMCOS. “Blanket” refers to an arrangement which allow the licensed party to use the track without needing to individually clear it with the rights owner.
On recording the track, a recording right is created. Up until the late 90’s, Record Companies usually funded studio recordings by artists, and in doing so acquired the recording right. The explosion of lower cost recording software has led to the proliferation of Independent Artist owned recordings. Often an artist will allow a label to represent their recording right for a fee. As with AMCOS, parties who wish to “dub” a track require a reproduction license to do so.
The Australian Record Industry Association – ARIA – has an arrangement with their member labels to issue and maintain blanket recording “dubbing” music licenses for limited activities. Background music is one of them. The other option is to take out recording license agreements directly with the labels – possible but more difficult to do.
So to dub a track for background music requirements you require an AMCOS and ARIA license… or licenses with the individual owners. When the track is played in to be what is deemed public space – and most business space falls into this category – two types of public performance rights need to be licensed:
A public performance right in the composition, which the Australia Performance Rights Association – APRA – has the right to issue and
A public performance right in the recording, which the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia – PPCA – can issue.
While the onus to license the Public Performance area lies with the owner or manager of the space, some background music suppliers have arrangements with APRA and PPCA to collect and remit these licenses.
Not surprisingly AMCOS and APRA – which license the composition right – are jointly managed associations. Likewise, ARIA and PPCA – which license the recording right – are also jointly managed.
That was then, this is now…
OneMusic (established 2019) is an APRA AMCOS and PPCA joint music licensing initiative. OneMusic allows businesses and organisations to meet their copyright obligations for the use of musical works, sound recordings and music videos in a public (not domestic) setting under the one organisation.
As a business music provider (BMP) Soundmark has a formal Background Music, Agency-representation arrangement with OneMusic Australia and OneMusic NZ (separate entities) & we recommend to all of our clients to take advantage of Soundmark managing their OneMusic fees where feasible.
