Putting music in an app or a game

A track in an app or a game carries two copyrights at once. One is in the music as it was written. The other is in the recording you hear. Each can have a different owner.

Two rights in one track

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) says copyright arises automatically in original musical works and in sound and music recordings. Nobody applies for it or pays a fee, and the UK keeps no register of copyright works.

Unless the owner agrees, copyright stops other people copying a work, handing out copies, playing it in public, adapting it or posting it online.

Who owns each one

The IPO says the author of a musical work is usually its first owner. The first owner of a sound recording is its record producer. Music written by an employee as part of their employment belongs first to the employer, unless the two agree otherwise.

How long each lasts

GOV.UK sets out how long copyright usually lasts. Copyright in a musical work lasts 70 years after the author's death. Copyright in a sound recording lasts 70 years from when it was first published. The length can also depend on how long ago the work was created.

Having music written for you

When you commission someone to create a work, the IPO says the creator is its first legal owner, not you. That changes only if you agree otherwise in writing. A freelancer working under a contract for services will usually keep the copyright unless the contract says otherwise.

Where a commission says nothing about copyright, a court may decide that the commissioner holds an implied licence, covering use for the purpose the music was commissioned. The IPO notes that this does not necessarily transfer ownership.

Getting a licence

The IPO describes a licence as an agreement between the owner of a right and another party. It gives them permission to do something that would otherwise infringe the right.

MCPS licenses rights in songs on behalf of its members, who include songwriters, composers and publishers. Among the rights it represents, its website lists sync rights, for music synchronised into audio-visual entertainment, including TV, film, video games, adverts and promotional content.

The IPO's list of licensing bodies gives PRS for Music as the body for songwriters, composers and music publishers, and PPL as the body for record producers and performers.

The narrow exceptions

The IPO lists a few uses that need no permission. Fair dealing for criticism, review or quotation is allowed for any type of work, with a sufficient acknowledgement. Limited use for parody, caricature or pastiche is allowed too, but only to the extent that it is fair dealing.

The law gives no fixed definition of fair dealing. The IPO says it always turns on fact, degree and impression, and asks how a fair-minded and honest person would have dealt with the work. The IPO says a use that stands in for the original, so that the owner loses income, is not likely to be fair. Usually only part of a work may be used.

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