Editing Music for Dance Schools

[The Spy Husband]

Not really a technical question but it does involve theatre...!

 

There's a chance of my company getting work editing the music for local dance school displays and I have a question regarding MCPS licensing issues.

 

If a dance school came to me and asked for their music tracks (usual dance school type poppy commercial stuff - Lady Ga Ga, Black Eyed Peas, High School Musical, Hairspray etc etc) to be edited and whacked on to a CD or MiniDisc, would I (as the production studio) need to apply and pay for the appropriate licences, OR, could I simply do the edit job and effectively pass the buck by telling the Dance School that they are responsible for MCPS licensing?

 

From chatting to some dance teachers they tell me off the record that their music editing isn't done legally, ie they pay a small fortune for someone to edit it for them but MCPS licensing is never sought.

 

With respect to the dance schools, I know that the chances of MCPS finding out is slim as they have bigger fish to fry, but if this was a job that my company was to undertake I'd like to know the situation.

 

Before anyone says, yes I know I could just go straight to MCPS and ask them but I just wondered if anyone on the Blue Room had experience of this?

 

Any advice gratefully received! Thanks in advance.

[Ynot]

Correct answer - strictly speaking, yes, I believe that any modification to music tracks should be authorised, and possibly paid for.

 

Real world answer - it's highly unlikely that anyone is going to check up on every little dance school show to see whether music has a) been chopped about and b) has been licensed. That's not to say that I'm endorsing you modifying music tracks - that's up to you. :)