Acquiring a music license for studio is a must. A lot of new studio owners are not aware of this. It is one of the most common requirements that falls through the cracks when you open the doors. If you do open without a license you will likely get a phone call from one of the big three music licensing firms. Those may be BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. From experience I can tell you that those phone calls can be very unpleasant. That being said, I understand that they are doing their job, which is to educate people on copyright laws.
Do you have to get these licenses? Isn’t paying for the song enough? Short answer…no. Paying .99 cents on Itunes does not give you the right or permissions to make money off the songs or to perform with them on stage. While these companies have said they rarely sue anyone, it’s better to avoid that risk entirely. Just from a moral stand point I think we as studio owners should be happy to pay these fees and support fellow artists. Just my opinion though.
Below are a list of the big three licensing companies. It is highly recommended you purchase licenses from all three so you don’t have to worry about making sure every song you pick is covered. Fees can be wide-ranging and how each company charges you is different as well. Suffice to say that you will be billed based on the style of classes you offer and the number of students that you have enrolled. Dance Studio Life has a great article breaking this all down if you want to learn more.
Website: https://www.bmi.com/
BMI has multiple offices across the country including Los Angeles and New York. Their website claims to represent 13 million musical works. For more on how dance schools work with BMI Click Here
Website: http://www.ascap.com
ASCAP is the 2nd largest licenser of music with over 11.5 millions songs on under their representation. To sign up with them Click Here
Website: http://www.sesac.com
SESAC is not as large in terms of numbers as the other two large companies. However they still represent 400,000 songs. Chances are at some point you may choose a song in their library.
