Music licensing for sports events
February 23, 2023 5:47 PM Subscribe
How are music licensing rights handled for big sporting events that are televised & where the sport incorporates routines to music, such as figure skating, gymnastics, or synchronised swimming?
I know some athletes use pop songs in their routines so I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of permissions work involved with being able to use that music for their routine, especially if it's going to be televised internationally. But when YouTube/Spotify/et al geoblocks content, and performance artists (at least where I'm at) are freaking out about livestreaming their shows because no one's really worked out a good way to organise royalties for the use of pre-recorded music, how do sports events manage it?
Are the athletes only allowed to use a specific catalogue of songs? Do they have to declare their song choices ahead of time? Does the music get muted in different countries if there's no licensing agreement? Do they just not broadcast those sports to get past licensing?
I know some athletes use pop songs in their routines so I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of permissions work involved with being able to use that music for their routine, especially if it's going to be televised internationally. But when YouTube/Spotify/et al geoblocks content, and performance artists (at least where I'm at) are freaking out about livestreaming their shows because no one's really worked out a good way to organise royalties for the use of pre-recorded music, how do sports events manage it?
Are the athletes only allowed to use a specific catalogue of songs? Do they have to declare their song choices ahead of time? Does the music get muted in different countries if there's no licensing agreement? Do they just not broadcast those sports to get past licensing?
Response by poster: Bah, NYT link is behind a paywall
posted by creatrixtiara at 8:28 PM on February 23, 2023
posted by creatrixtiara at 8:28 PM on February 23, 2023
Best answer: Just in case the articles are tl;dr; In most contexts, it's possible to get a reasonably priced blanket performance license for music from the Performance Rights Organizations (PROs, think ASCAP and BMI) for live (or "live", there are quirks like tape delay and whatnot) broadcasts. If you have a prerecorded event (like a TV show or movie), you need what's considered a "sync" license, which is generally much more expensive and has to be negotiated individually for each track.
Ten years ago I worked for a startup that did online concerts, and we put a lot of emphasis on "It's live only! You need to be there in order to get the true experience! Watching a recording later is terrible and stupid!" type stuff*. But the truth was, we could afford a blanket live license that would allow the performers to play absolutely anything they wanted, but if we recorded the videos for our customers' later viewing we'd need to to go out and get financially ruinous licenses for all the songs. Or, we would have had to forbid the artists from playing anything they didn't write themselves.
With our blanket license, we could stream an hour of straight Beatles covers and we and the artist would be 100% licensed and above board.
* That was all true, honestly. It was a night and day difference when we'd play back our performances later for testing and whatnot.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 11:33 AM on February 24, 2023
Ten years ago I worked for a startup that did online concerts, and we put a lot of emphasis on "It's live only! You need to be there in order to get the true experience! Watching a recording later is terrible and stupid!" type stuff*. But the truth was, we could afford a blanket live license that would allow the performers to play absolutely anything they wanted, but if we recorded the videos for our customers' later viewing we'd need to to go out and get financially ruinous licenses for all the songs. Or, we would have had to forbid the artists from playing anything they didn't write themselves.
With our blanket license, we could stream an hour of straight Beatles covers and we and the artist would be 100% licensed and above board.
* That was all true, honestly. It was a night and day difference when we'd play back our performances later for testing and whatnot.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 11:33 AM on February 24, 2023
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posted by urbanlenny at 6:05 PM on February 23, 2023 [2 favorites]