Answers · music
Does a venue's ASCAP or BMI blanket license let a campaign or brand use a song?
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TL;DR: Only for one narrow thing, and often not even that. A venue's blanket license from a performing rights organization (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or GMR) covers public performances of the songs in that organization's catalog at that venue. It is not the songwriter's or artist's permission for anything else: it does not cover putting the song in an ad, a video or a social post, it does not cover the recording itself in those uses, and it does not stop a claim that the use falsely implies the artist endorses you. ASCAP and BMI also say their venue licenses generally exclude political campaign events, so campaigns usually buy their own political license, and songwriters can have their songs pulled from a specific campaign's license.
What should I check, step by step?
1. Name the use: music played live or from a recording at an event (a public performance), or music placed in a video, ad, livestream replay or social post (which also needs a sync license from the publisher and a master-use license from whoever owns the recording).
- For a performance at an event: check which organization licenses the song (search the ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR repertoires) and whether the license in place covers this kind of event.
- Political campaigns: get the campaign's own political license from each organization whose songs you play; ASCAP and BMI say venue licenses generally do not cover campaign events.
- Watch for exclusion notices: under the ASCAP and BMI political licenses a songwriter can have songs excluded from a particular campaign, and BMI's license says an excluded song played after notice is not covered even at a separately licensed venue.
- Brands: a store's or venue's background-music license never extends to marketing. Any song in an ad or branded video needs sync and master licenses negotiated with the rights holders.
- Separate from copyright: using a recognizable song or artist in a way that suggests endorsement can bring false-endorsement (Lanham Act) or right-of-publicity claims, licensed or not.
- Keep the license, the repertoire search result and any exclusion notices on file for each event or campaign.
Why does every track have two copyrights?
A recorded song has two copyrights: the musical work (melody and lyrics, usually held by songwriters and publishers) and the sound recording (usually held by the label or artist).
- Performing rights organizations license public performances of the musical work. Under U.S. law sound recordings have no general public-performance right, so playing a lawfully bought recording at a live event needs only the musical-work license; streaming or broadcasting it digitally can need more.
- Putting music in a video or ad is a different right (synchronization and reproduction), licensed directly by publishers and labels, never by a venue's blanket license.
What about outside the U.S.?
Other countries have their own collecting societies (PRS for Music, GEMA, SACEM, SOCAN and others) and different rules, including public-performance rights in sound recordings. Check the rules where the event or campaign runs.
What do the license checks say?
Yes means the license grants the use, on the duties listed. Duties such as source_disclosure, share_alike and network_source_offer are the ones that conflict with keeping a product closed-source.
| Use | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A CC BY 4.0 track set to a brand video, with credit (CC-BY-4.0) | Yes | Every use you described is granted by CC BY 4.0, and nothing you described is prohibited. Duties: attribution, license_notice, state_changes, no_additional_restrictions. |
How do I ask a2ally about this (free, no key)?
Add the MCP server https://www.a2ally.com/mcp to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, Grok or VS Code, then ask: “We found a CC BY 4.0 track for a brand video. Can we use it, and what do we owe the artist?”
{
"tool": "check_license",
"arguments": {
"license": "CC-BY-4.0",
"intended_use": {
"commercial_use": true,
"modification": true,
"redistribution": true,
"attribution_planned": true
}
}
}- attribution_string writes the credit line the license asks for.
- Pass the track's page as source_url when it is on a source a2ally reads, and it checks the license that page declares.
a2ally reads licenses and terms you point it at. It does not issue music licenses or search performing rights catalogs, and it cannot tell you whether a song is excluded from a campaign's license.
What are the sources?
- Congressional Research Service: Copyright and Uses of Music by Political Campaigns
- ASCAP: Using ASCAP Music in Political Campaigns (FAQ)
- BMI: Music Licensing for Political Entities or Organizations
- 17 U.S.C. § 106: exclusive rights in copyrighted works
- U.S. Copyright Office Circular 56A: musical works and sound recordings
- 15 U.S.C. § 1125: false designation of origin (Lanham Act)
Related
- Can I use CC BY 4.0 commercially?
- Is CC BY-NC OK for YouTube?
- Does "no copyright infringement intended" protect you?
Not legal advice. JSON · Markdown · All answers
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curl -s -X POST https://www.a2ally.com/v1/accounts/signup -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"accept_terms":true}'
export A2ALLY_API_KEY=rs_... # the api_key from the reply (shown once)
curl -s https://www.a2ally.com/v1/licenses/check -H "Authorization: Bearer $A2ALLY_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"license":"MIT","intended_use":{"commercial_use":true}}'