When you want to perform or present music or any form of audio media, whether it be as part of a course, at a group or club activity, at an organization event, or as a training exercise, you have to consider the rights of the those who own the copyright to the work you want to use. In most cases however, fair use would allow for the use of audio content for educational purposes. Below is guidance on permissible uses of copyrighted content in teaching, research, and scholarship.
If such use is intended outside of the classroom, such as at a group or club activity or at an organization event, then Public Performance Rights will need to be obtained.
The following are two sets of guidelines that are often cited as ideal tools with which to measure the use of copyrighted music material in course-related instruction or research. These guidelines both use the concepts of brevity, spontaneity and cumulative effect to illustrate what may or may not be a fair use. They suggest numerical limits as the minimum standards of educational fair use.
Recently, a number of organizations have published Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use that relate specifically to the educational use of multimedia resources. Below is one such code that addresses the specific research and pedagogical needs of music and music education and should be consulted when appropriate and in concert with previously established guidelines to facilitate a thorough evaluation of the use of copyrighted multimedia content.
The following situational guidelines are excerpted from the above Best Practices in Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials in Music Scholarship and should be used in conjunction with classroom guidelines to inform decisions regarding the use of copyrighted media:
Relatively brief excerpts (that is, only as much as is necessary), whether in full score or in reduction, and whether explicated or used in illustration of an argument or comparison, may be used without permission of the copyright holder. Note that this would apply both to original/unadulterated scores (which may be in the public domain in any event) and to later edited editions. Note that if the scholarly analysis requires reproduction of the work in its entirety, then even this use would constitute fair use. In this case, the scholar should make certain that every part of the reproduction is necessary to the analysis. This position is strengthened if the work itself is quite short.
Citing song lyrics can often be essential to an argument or explication, or can provide a means for orienting a reader to a musical description. Thus, citing lyrics can be essential to learning—the very basis for copyright—and so must be permitted under fair use. Reasonable care should be taken to ensure that no more of a lyric is quoted than the critical or scholarly context requires; however, this admonition permits a very wide variance in the actual length of quoted material (extending even to quoting an entire lyric), as long as the quoted material is necessary to the argument being made. The requirement of some publishers that authors obtain permission for every quotation of song lyrics should be discontinued, as that practice runs counter to the principles of fair use.
Relatively brief excerpts (that is, only as much as is necessary) of commercial recordings or other recordings of copyrighted material, whether explicated or used in illustration of an argument or comparison, may be used without permission of the copyright holder.
Depending on circumstances and notational method, musical transcriptions might be considered artifacts of scholarship or copies (similar to translations). An argument may be made that there should be no restrictions on the publication of transcriptions that fall in the first category, since the transcription actually is the scholarship; this Best Practices in the Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials in Music Scholarship would have to be considered carefully on a case by case basis. If the transcription is being used as a substitute for the recording, as an aid to explication, an illustration, or a basis for comparison, the same rules should apply as to music recordings; in such cases, relatively brief excerpts (that is, only as much as is necessary) of copyrighted recordings without the permission of the copyright owner are allowed.