Before you record your spring recital: mechanical licensing basics.

Before you make an audio recording of your school's spring recital, you should obtain mechanical licenses for the songs to ensure you can include them on your CD. A mechanical license is required under U.S. copyright law if you want to manufacture and distribute recordings of compositions written by someone other than yourself. They ensure that the music publisher and, ultimately, the songwriter, are compensated for the use of their work. If you don't have the proper licenses in place, a reputable CD manufacturer will not reproduce your recording for you.

There are several ways to obtain a mechanical license: from the music publisher itself; a licensing agent such as The Harry Fox Agency (HFA); or through the compulsory licensing provisions described in the U.S. Copyright Act. Most people do not choose the latter option as it is very labor intensive and requires quite a bit of ongoing administration and reporting after the license is issued.

For any of these options, you will probably need to provide at a minimum, the name of the song, the songwriter(s), the publisher(s) and the length of your group's performance of the song in minutes and seconds (you should have some idea of this from your rehearsals). You will also need to supply the name of your recording and its projected release date (the date you intend to begin to distribute copies of the recording). You may also be asked for the record company name, which is the entity that is legally responsible for the recording, such as you or your studio or school.

The timing is important because the royalty rate is calculated based on the length of your performance of the song. Under current U.S. copyright law, the mechanical royalty rate is 9.1 cents for a composition five minutes or less in length, or 1.75 cents per minute for songs over five minutes, rounded up to the nearest whole minute. This is then multiplied by the number of copies of the recording you intend to make. So, for example, for 250 copies of a recording of a composition that is 5 minutes and 30 seconds long, the calculation is 6 x $0.0175 = 0.105 x 250 = $26.25.

Some harbor the misperception that if you are working for a school, making less than a certain number of copies, or giving away the recordings, you are exempt from the need to obtain a mechanical license, because they think these activities are "fair use" under the law. This is not true. "Fair Use" is more limited and is generally considered to apply to purposes such as the use of excerpts for criticism, news reporting, teaching and research.

There are songs that are in the "public domain," which means the song's copyright has expired, so you don't need to obtain a license. But be careful--never presume a song is "old" enough to be in the public domain unless you know it was copyrighted before 1923. A good resource to check is the website www.pdinfo.org. Another caution: while the original song may be in public domain, the particular arrangement you are using may currently be under copyright and the arrangement will need to be licensed.

Videotaping your recital requires a different kind of license: a synchronization license. This type of license needs to be obtained directly from the music publisher. Unlike a mechanical license, there is no set rate under law and the publisher can refuse to issue the license if they choose, so you definitely want to investigate this well in advance before you commit to the recording project.

With a little bit of advance planning, you can obtain the proper legal licenses to ensure that your students and their parents have a great keepsake recording of their performance to treasure for years to come.

Maurice Russell is the vice president of licensing for The Harry Fox Agency, Inc., the premier mechanical licensing agency in the United States He is also an amateur choral composer.