Protect Your Event: Music Licensing Advice for Event Pros and Planners

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So here's a question I'm getting asked a lot lately. Do we need a

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music license for our corporate event? Well, let's get into

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it. Welcome to the Event Pro show,

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your ultimate guide to the world of corporate events. Whether you're a corporate event

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planner, experiential marketing pro, producer, technician, or

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anyone involved in creating exceptional events, this podcast is your go to

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resource for valuable insights, expert tips and inspiring stories from the

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industry's leading professionals. Foreign.

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Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Event Pro Show. I am

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your host, Seth Mackey. I'm the CEO of lemg. We're an

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event production company based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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And we produce primarily corporate events all over the United

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States. And lately I have been getting

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asked a question that just keeps coming up over and over

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again. It's something that I think comes up every once in a while, but lately

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it seems to be ramping up. So I thought it'd be good to do just

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a basic overview about music licensing

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at corporate events. I just keep getting asked the question, do I

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need a music license for this private corporate event?

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You know, we're having 500 people at this ballroom and can't you just

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throw up your Spotify account? We did a playlist and can we just do

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it or do we need a license? And there seems

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to be a lot of confusion around this issue

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and probably for good reason. It's a little bit

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confusing, but I will try to add a little bit of clarity. And

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also I plan on having an expert on

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the show in an upcoming episode. And we're going to get really deep into it.

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But I thought it'd be good to do just kind of a high level,

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you know, what questions should I ask? What should I do if I think I

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need a music license? So let's get into what people mean

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by music licenses because

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I think a lot of times we hear kind of hearsay

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about what happened here. So and so got fined or, or you know, so and

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so was getting a license for this. We don't really know what that means. Well,

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what people are talking about with music licenses as

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it pertains to. To live events.

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What or what I'm referring to in this episode is

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specifically around walk in, walk out music at a

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corporate event or maybe like the award show music

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or just using music in general in a public space at a corporate

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event. And the type of license we're talking about

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is a public performance license. That's really what we're talking

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about. And I think a lot of people initially they, they

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think, well, I, I might have downloaded, you know, or I,

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I've, let's say this, I've subscribed to a service like Spotify. And

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so because I pay my monthly fee, that should cover it.

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And, you know, I'm fine. And

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I will say, first of all, that is not, that is not correct that you

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have been granted a license to listen to that music

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personally and enjoy that in any way you want personally.

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But the moment that you play it in front of a group

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of people, it becomes a public performance. And so the

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next thing I hear is, is people have said, well, okay, then I'll go and

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I'll actually buy and download each of those songs. So I bought it

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now. And now those 12 songs I paid $12

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for. And now I can, you know, I can just play it because I

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downloaded I own it. That's also incorrect in the

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case that I'm outlining. If you're playing it again for a large group

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of people publicly, you still probably need

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a public performance license. And so

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before you go and get a public performance license,

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first question to ask is ask the venue if they have a

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blanket license. A lot of venues have purchased a

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blanket license for the entirety of their property or where they have people

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that does cover them. However, there

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are often needs to also get a license if maybe you have a

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private event. So for example, if you have rented a ballroom

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and a hotel, they might have a blanket license for the music they're playing in

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the foyer or for their guests. But the moment that you rent a space, it

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becomes a private event. Now you control that space, and

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you probably need to get a music performance license.

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And so the key points here, if it's private,

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you know, private listening, you don't need a license. If it's public listening, a license

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is needed. And if it's a private event where you have, you kind of control

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a space, even though that venue might have a blanket license,

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you probably need a public, public performance license. And

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so where do you get that? Well, those licenses can be

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obtained from public rights organizations.

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So a public rights organization represents copyright

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holders and grants these licenses to

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users, and they also collect and distribute royalties. So if

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you're wondering how these artists magically make money off of their

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songs being played out in public, this is how this is functionally how this

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happens is people have to obtain licenses to play that

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artist's music in public spaces. And so

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these public rights organizations, or pros, there's three

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main ones that represent almost all artists, ascap,

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BMI, and csac. And we're going to link to them in

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the description of this episode. The,

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the issue there, what makes it kind of confusing, at least to

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me, is that not every artist is represented

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by any one of these public rights or professional rights

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organization. And what makes

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it even more confusing is you could have a song that, that is

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written by multiple songwriters and they might be

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represented by different. You know, one of them's represented by

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ascap, one of them's represented by BMI and one of them's represented by

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csac. And so the best thing to do is then

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to go to these websites, these, these organizations

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websites, and then you can, it's easy to navigate. You

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can, I have ASCAP open right now, I'm looking at it

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and you can click on obtaining a license and then they have all

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this information about rate schedules and you, you just kind of drill down and find

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what, what describes your event, purchase that license. You're looking at,

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you know, a few hundred dollars to buy a license for a large format event.

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A few. So in summary, you probably need

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a license. If you're being asked that question and you're, you're

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hosting a large event, even if you're at a

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venue, their blanket license probably isn't adequate and you probably

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need to obtain a license. A question you might be thinking is how

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do they know? And you know what, maybe they won't find out. But there

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are people that work for these organizations that just kind of do audits. They go

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around to public spaces and if they find that you don't have a license,

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you know, the penalties for that are, could be steep fines,

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could be legal action, there could be other, other,

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other penalties involved. So you really want to avoid that. And it's

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relatively inexpensive thing. And actually if you think about it, you're,

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this is how artists make a living. And most

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songwriters, you know, they're, they're normal working, working people that

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are, that are creating art that is supporting their family. So,

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so that money is going to support them. So it's a good

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thing to do. If you want to avoid licenses,

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there are a few options. They're okay,

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license free music is one thing you

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can do. I, we used to call that

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elevator music growing up. But a lot of it is,

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it's kind of derivative of popular music at the time, but

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it's kind of, it's music that's created that isn't by anybody that you

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know, but it will do in some circumstances. There's

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other commercial music servicing companies that, where

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they will, they're specifically for businesses or things like

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this that they'll handle licensing for you. So you can, you can kind of hire

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a service that will, that will help you find the right license for you. So

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those are a few options. One other thing to keep in mind is this

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also can pertain to if, if you hire a band

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or a situation might be like you have a coffee

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shop and you have a band play at your coffee shop or you have a

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venue and if they're not covered, you might be responsible

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for the license for the music that they're covering. So there, there's just

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a few things that you really need to go to these websites, ascap,

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bmi, csac, they have a lot of resources. If you have questions

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and go in their Q and A section to figure out if your your

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specific situation needs a license. But if you're

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asking that question and you're hearing that from your team, chances are you

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probably do need a license and go and do your research

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because your Spotify playlists ain't cutting it at

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large format events. So hey, you've been told

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now, now you know you're armed with some resources to go do

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some research on your own. Look out for a longer format

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episode where I'm going to bring in an expert in music licensing and we're going

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to go deep on this. But this is just something to tide you over in

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the meantime so you can go and do some research and do the right thing

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by your client and do the right thing at your events.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of the Event Pro Show. We put out

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an episode every week. Every other week I have a guest

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that is somehow related to corporate events

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and I think that in that you might need to know. These are

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amazing episodes. I just had one I can't wait to release. I'm not going to

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even tell you about it, but you're going to love them all. These guests are

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fantastic. And then the other week I give you tips and tricks

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that'll help you do better at your events. Whether that's how to

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work better with your AV partner or things like this. Music licensing. If you

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need an AV provider for your corporate events, LEMG would love

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to be considered for that. You can go to LEMG Live

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or find me seth Mackey on LinkedIn. We would love to help you,

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but thank you for spending some time with us and we'll see you on the

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next one. The Event Pro show is a

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production of LEMG video by Nick Barrett,

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audio and post production by Prince Thompson. You can learn more about

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us at lemg live.