Background Music

BACKGROUND MUSIC

 

The basics

 

What’s copyright?

When someone creates a piece of music (or a piece of text, a graphic, a photo, painting, a film or anything else that is protected under copyright laws), a whole system of legal rights and obligations comes into play. These rights and obligations outline what someone can and can't do with the material.

Copyright law provides an incentive for creators to continue creating. Copyright Law in Australia is governed by the Copyright Act 1968 (the Act), and the intention of the Act is to protect copyrighted works  from  being  used  without  the  permission of  the  owner  and  to  provide  an economic incentive to artists to produce new material.

 

Who owns the copyright in a piece of music?

There is generally more than one copyright owner in any given track. For instance:

• The composer who wrote the music owns copyright in the musical works.
• The maker of the sound recording (typically a record company) owns copyright in the sound recording.
• Additionally, the lyricist who wrote the lyrics owns copyright in the literary works.  The artist who performed the music may own the copyright in a sound recording of their live performance.

 

What rights do the copyright owners have?

The copyright owners (i.e. the owner of the work and the owner of the recording respectively) have a number of exclusive rights, including the right to:

• Make copies of the tracks;
• Perform music in public (eg by playing the tracks in hotel, café or retail stores); and
• Communicate the tracks to the public.

 

I bought legitimate digital music. Can I make copy the music onto multiple devices for use in my café, restaurant, hotel or retail store?

The purchase of a digital music file gives you a set of rights, including to play it privately or to copy the file from your computer to a device. However, copying the music onto multiple devices, without the permission of all relevant copyright owners, may be an infringement of copyright except in very limited circumstances.

 

I bought a legitimate CD. Can I make copies for use in my café, restaurant, hotel or retail store?

The purchase of a CD gives you the right to own the physical disc, to play it privately, and to pass on the same physical disc to another person. This means that copying the music from a CD including onto an iPod, without the permission of all relevant copyright owners, is an infringement of copyright except in very limited circumstances. The Copyright Act allow you to “format shift” music for personal use, for example, to copy from CD format to MP3 format in certain limited situations. However, this does not extend to use of the music in a café, restaurant or retail store.

If you want to copy your legitimate CDs onto an iPod or onto other CDs to play as background music in a commercial setting, you must get:

• A  licence  from  the  relevant  record  company  for  the  reproduction of  the  sound recording (contact the Licensing Department of the relevant record company).  ARIA and PPCA offer “blanket” licences for these purposes; and