An Overview of Blanket Music License

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A blanket music licensing in the music industry is a legal ticket that allows you to use music in a situation where issuing individual music licenses would seem burdensome. There are a few intricate terms that prevail in the music industry and understanding them at the initial stages might seem to be a little difficult.

Understanding Blanket Music Licenses

Thankfully, the music industry has launched a convenient product for enterprises that require playing a lot of recorded music. This is the blanket music license. This is extremely beneficial to them who are playing music to the public qualifies. These enterprises include radio stations, clubs, bowling alleys, etc.  Now if these enterprises need to sign a contract directly with each copyright owner of each and every recording then they could have never got it done.  It would become too expensive as well. It is because of this reason that ASCAP (American Society of Composers) and BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) have come together to create blanket music license.  With blanket music license a business like a radio station needs to buy blanket music license from these organizations. They then have the legal access to all of the millions of songs that each one represents. 

Cost of Blanket Music License

The cost that the enterprise has to bear for the license depends on a large number of factors. A few include:

•  How many songs it actually wants
• Its total revenue level
•  How widely the music is being broadcasted.

It is also important to be mentioned that the fees actually vary depending on the establishment and the private use of privately recorded music on CD, DVD and disk or in a non public setting requires no blanket license at all.

Blanket music licenses are so named because of their broad coverage. Now you might ask whether blanket music license is needed by the owner of a club if an individual artist or a band has obtained blanket license and is playing in that club for the audience? The answer is yes. This is because owners and operators of businesses who provide music must obtain their authorization of the music that is being used to be played in their establishment.

The best thing about blanket license is that it gives free access to music users without long-term and extensive planning. A blanket therefore grants permission of holders of copyrights, composers, songwriters and publishers in one fell swoop. No negotiation is needed.