Who owns classical music

The clue is in that word: The recording. For here we come to the crux of the matter. There are in fact two copyrights that exist in every music recording. One is the right in the Composition, and the other is the right in the Recording. When we are talking about classical music rights, we are talking about the rights that exist in that recording and arrangement. If you decide to sing a Mozart piece out loud, that is your arrangement of that composition.

When a record company decides to release a classical CD, they make their own arrangement and recording of that music. When they have done so, they own the rights to that recording. So long as you stay within the license terms. The same goes for traditional music, meaning music where the composition is so old that nobody even knows who really composed it.

The Composition is not copyrighted to anyone, but if somebody hires musicians and makes their own recording of any of these tracks — then that person or company owns the rights in that recording. YouTube, being ignorant, waltzed in and stripped off the soundtrack, claiming that the music was under copyright to so-and-so record company — because that company had, at one time or other, registered the copyright in their recording of that particular classical track.

Therefore, two sets of copyright protection exists in every sound recording — the right in the composition, and the right in the sound recording. The same happens when a record company records a recording of the song and includes it on an album.

The record company will own the copyright in their own recording and arrangement. Regardless of the number of sound recordings, there will only be one copyright in the underlying composition.

However, the additional costs to re-record a song might cancel out the cost savings of avoiding to pay the master use fees.

To conclude, do not assume that a sound recording is in the public domain just because the composer of the underlying musical work died 50 years ago. Even when a composition is in the public domain, the sound recording is still protected and its copyright owner has exclusive rights to that particular arrangement for 50 years after the first publication of the sound recording.

For more information and blogs, please visit www. Please contact Edwards Creative Law or another lawyer, if you wish to apply these concepts to your specific circumstances. Even if the composer is no longer above ground, his or her work can be protected by copyright law for 95 years or longer.

Works created after January 1, can be protected for the life of the composer plus 70 years, before those works move into the public domain. Barbara Petersen, Asst. Whether music sounds new or old does not determine its copyright status. Mark O'Connor is an example of a contemporary BMI writer whose work breaks down barriers between classical and other genres of music.

He runs a fiddle camp, appears in the credits of country music albums, and just released a jazz album called "Hot Swing! It still doesn't explain why Sony rejected the challenge, though. Guys, let's be reasonable here. Without strong copyright enforcement, composers like Bach will have no incentive to produce new music.

Sony is just ensuring that Bach has the financial freedom to release his next album. Really they're doing you a favor. This guy has some serious chops. Timothy B. Lee Timothy is a senior reporter covering tech policy, blockchain technologies and the future of transportation.