Dance schools and Spotify

All digital music services pay licence fees to music rights organisations from around the world (like APRA AMCOS in Australia) to compensate the music creators that these services are making money from.

You should be aware that a OneMusic Australia licence, even when it includes Digital Copy/Delivery only gives you permission to use our music in your business (or event); it does not override the Terms of Use for the personal digital music service you are using, nor does it give you permission to use that particular digital music service for a commercial purpose – that permission can only come from the owners of that digital music service.

You can verify this by reading Spotify's Terms and Conditions of Use 'Your rights to use the Spotify Service' under clause 3. Other services have their own Terms and Conditions you can research. 

Even with our licence, the use of digital music streaming services by you in your business may be in breach of the terms and conditions of your end user agreement with that service. You should check with your service provider.

If we use syllabus music why are we paying a OneMusic licence fee?

A similar answer to the one above...

The creators of syllabus music have paid their licence fees for the music, but only ‘half way’, that is, for personal use only. The other half of the licence fee has to be paid when that music moves from personal use to public performance use – as used in a dance studio. The creators of syllabus music could cover all the fees – but the price of the syllabus music would increase by at least the same amount – so there would be no advantage either way.

There is a way to save on the syllabus music you are publicly performing within your dance business:

• Investigate whether the recordings of the syllabus music you are using is actually represented by PPCA. There is more information about PPCA’s licensors here. Save 48.25% of the full fee.
• Have you signed a direct licence with a PPCA licensor such as a record label for your music? Save 48.25% of the full fee.
• Is the songwriter, composer or music publisher in the syllabus songs a member of APRA AMCOS or an equivalent overseas organisation? If they are not, you will save 48.25% of the full fee.
• Have you developed songwriting agreements with the songwriters? One pre-schooler dance program has songs specifically composed and written by three APRA members but have songwriting agreements in place to pay these writers directly for their services. This business saved 48.25% of the full fee.