All You Need To Know About PRO Licenses
All venues and/or teams that play music in a stadium or arena need PRO licenses to keep the music lawyers away. So, what exactly is a PRO and why do we need their licenses? A PRO is a Performance Rights Organization. PROs represent songwriters, composers and music publishers, to collect royalties from licenses, and pay those royalties back to their clients.
Most of you know the big PROs out there, ASCAP and BMI, but over the last 20-30 years, there has been a bit of splintering of PROs. There are now five PROs in the US: ALLTRACK, ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC. To be compliant, you should have all five for your team and venue.
When it comes down to it, PROs are in place to pay the artist for the public use of their music. Music is created, copyrighted, then licensed. When it’s played or performed, the songwriter and music publisher have a royalty due to them. Once music is played at any business (a restaurant, gym or stadium) this play is considered a “public performance” and permission must be granted by the artist/songwriter’s PROs. Here is a bit more information of each PRO:
- ASCAP- the first PRO in the US, they are home to more than one million music creator members across all genres with more than 20 million songs, distributing over 1 billion dollars to their members annually
- BMI- currently the largest music rights organization in the U.S. representing over 22.4 million musical works created and owned by more than 1.4 million songwriters, composers and music publishers
- SESAC- currently licenses more than 1.5 million songs on behalf of its 15,000+ affiliated songwriters, composers, and music publishers, which include artists Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, RUSH, Adele, Jack Harlow, Ariana Grande and many more.
- GMR- founded by Irving Azoff, GMR represents a smaller roster of HUGE artists like Bruno Mars, Billie Eilish, Jon Bon Jovi, Lizzo, Prince, Chris Cornell, Drake, George Harrison, Harry Styles, Ira Gershwin, James Hetfield and a LOT more
- AllTrack- the newest and fastest growing PRO, represents thousands of smaller writers that collaborate with bigger writers and artists
Obtaining music licenses from PROs grant you the legal permission required to play music. These licensing agreements safeguard your business from severe consequences associated with copyright infringement, which can include fines and penalties of up to $150,000 per song.
The question I get asked a lot is, “Do I need to get all 5 PRO licenses?” In most cases, yes. Each PRO represents a different group of songwriters and publishers whose music is utilized across the music industry. PROs provide "blanket licenses," which grant you the ability to perform or play all the copyrighted music they represent without any limitations on frequency.
That said, if you don’t want to pay for the PRO licenses, you can play all rights free music or public domain music. If you do that, your music options and overall stadium sound will be severely limited. You would not be able to play any of the big-named artists that your fans look forward to hearing in arena.
Another option is to pay for a couple of these PROs. However, you will be creating a LOT of work for your DJ and/or music staff. Every track that would be played in arena would have to be checked across PROs to make sure the writers of each song are covered with the PRO licenses you have in place. If one of the writers of a song you play are not, you are leaving your team and/or venue open to legal action.
Keep in mind the music played at games and events has expanded greatly over the past few years. Stadium music has moved away from “Jock Jams” and big tracks released from a few big-named artists. Independent artists accounts for close to 50% of all streaming today, and over 85% of all songs in the top 100 are written by more than one person. Music diversity is bigger than ever and is also why the US has several PRO's representing the tremendous growth in artists.
This is a good time to tell you that this blog is not legal advice and should not be treated as such. It may not be up-to-date and is subject to change without notice. All materials provided are for general informational purposes only. Of course, you and your team will have to consider the benefits of having these licenses and the consequences for not having them and make the best educated decision for your team.
If you have any questions, contact John Adams at The Score.