Under the pandemic, the only way for choruses to share concert experiences with their audiences has been online. Learning the ins and outs of video production posed an obvious challenge, but another, less apparent, obstacle has proven to be almost as imposing: licensing the music.

The process is complicated even for a single piece featured in a virtual choir production, but clearing rights for five or ten pieces to create a concert video can be exponentially more difficult.  And although the end of the pandemic appears to be in sight, this challenge isn’t going away. For many choruses, a mix of online and in-person programming will become business as usual. We spoke with a cross-section of choral leaders, publishers, and music licensing specialists to create this primer for choruses planning to produce concert videos for online viewing.

Now more than ever, it’s important for choruses to understand their rights and responsibilities regarding the use of published music. New technologies are changing the way organizations purchase and use copyrighted materials. To complement a session at the 2018 Chorus America Conference, five music publishers talk about the key questions they are facing.

Securing the rights to perform, commission, record, or distribute music gets more complicated with every technological advance—here are basic guidelines to keep your chorus on the right side of legal.