The Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival Association negotiates very specific agreements with music publishing companies to allow us to re-print the sheet music for each year’s Festival repertoire into the song and accompaniment books. This means that there are some restrictions on how that sheet music can be used.
Copyright FAQs
Can my school choir perform any of the Festival repertoire in a school concert, showcase, or assembly?
Yes, you can, but your school must purchase its own copies of the sheet music for the songs you wish to sing to cover its copyright obligations. The sheet music in the Festival’s accompaniment books and song books is licensed only for use as part of the Festival. By you or your school purchasing its own copies of the sheet music for a song, you are effectively purchasing a licence to rehearse/perform that song outside of the Festival.
What if we don’t use the Festival song books during our school performance; that is, we sing from memory one of the songs from the Festival?
Unfortunately, this may still breach the restrictions placed on us as you have still used the Festival-only material to learn those songs. It is always recommended that your school purchase enough originals of the sheet music itself to cover its copyright obligations. Once you have done this, you can then use the Festival-only material to continue to learn/rehearse this song.
What about singing some of the Festival’s songs during an open rehearsal?
This is fine as long as the setting in which you are singing part or all of a song from Festival material is truly in the style of a rehearsal (ie, you are openly rehearsing where you normally rehearse Festival repertoire, observers are coming and going throughout the open rehearsal, and you are not simply singing songs in full one after the other without stopping to work on them).
If we purchase enough original sheet music of a Festival song to cover our own performance of that song, can we use the piano-only version of the Festival’s rehearsal tracks to accompany our performance?
No – the rehearsal tracks that the Festival’s music team create can only be used for the purpose of rehearsing for the Festival, not as a virtual piano accompanist during a school performance.
At the end of a Festival season, can we keep the accompaniment books and song books and use them for school performances?
Each student can keep their copy of the Song Book as a souvenir if they wish but the school cannot use any of the Festival’s material for a school performance. Just because Festival material is from a previous year, it does not mean that the copyright restrictions have lapsed. The same rules apply to the Festival song books, accompaniment books, and rehearsal tracks, regardless of whether they are from a previous Festival season.
Can we photocopy any of the Festival material?
The sheet music contained with the Festival materials are not deemed “originals”, therefore you cannot photocopy them under any photocopying scheme/allowance such as that specified in the OneMusic Music in Schools Licence. However, if you wish to buy your own originals of the sheet music for a particular song, those photocopying schemes/allowances will apply to that.
Where can I buy originals of the sheet music for my school to cover our own performances?
The majority of the sheet music for the songs in the Festival can be purchased from the big online sheet music retailers such as Musicnotes, Sheet Music Plus, or J.W. Pepper. If you can’t find the sheet music on those websites, Google is always the best bet to help you find another website which may be able to sell you the sheet music. It is worth shopping around as the same sheet music may be sold by a number of different vendors, but at very different prices. You can further reduce the price by purchasing digital delivery versions of the sheet music to save on shipping costs of physical copies.
You do not have to use the sheet music you’ve purchased in rehearsals or performances (you may find it easier to keep using the Festival-provided material), as long as you can prove you have purchased the originals of the sheet music yourself.
Doesn’t the OneMusic Music in Schools Licence give us coverage to use this material?
In the specific case of the Festival, it does not. The licences from OneMusic, in part, provide blanket performing rights coverage (this means that schools do not have to separately seek permission to perform a song after purchasing the sheet music for it). So, the OneMusic licence gives you coverage regarding the right to perform songs from the Festival, but it does not cover the fact that the Festival material you have used to learn that music has very restricted use rights. You or your school has to make sure it has purchased enough originals of any sheet music for a song you wish to perform outside of the Festival, to completely cover your copyright obligations.
What are we paying for when we pay for the song and accompaniment books from the Festival?
When you purchase song books and accompaniment books from the Festival, you are not actually paying for the sheet music itself; you are simply covering (in-part) the printing cost of this material. That’s why the sheet music in that material are not deemed “originals” and cannot be used outside of rehearsing or performing for the Festival.