Copyright for Educators: Music

Yes, you may play music or other sound recordings in the classroom for educational or training purposes as long as it is a legal, commercial copy and there is not a technological measure preventing you from accessing the material.

But:

   You cannot upload copyright protected music to a course management system.  

   You cannot burn copies for distribution without permission. 

Fair dealing permits copying of an entire single musical score from a copyright-protected work containing other musical scores.

Copying of an entire musical score that is not in a copyright-protected work containing other musical scores is NOT permitted without obtaining permission. 

Fair Dealing allows up to 10% of a musical work to be copied.  So if a book contains a number of songs or musical scores then you can copy the greater of one musical work or 10% of the book.  If the musical score is not contained in a book with other musical scores then fair dealing limits the copying to 10% of a score (which is not generally all that useful).

If you need to obtain permission, generally the music publisher is a good place to start.  At times the right to copy music is given when the music is purchased.  In these cases the music books or sheets will have a notice stating that copying is permitted and no further permission needs to be sought.

Definition of a music score (from the online Oxford English Dictionary):   a written or printed piece of concerted music, in which all the vocal and instrumental parts are noted on a series of staves one under the other. Commonly stated to be so called from the practice (not now always followed) of connecting the related staves by ‘scores’ or lines continuing the bars.