Performance rights licensing streaming video

During the Covid 19 pandemic, musicians were isolated from their accompanists, live (in person) venues were closed by health-orders, and as the shelter in place orders expanded from weeks to months, musicians looked to busking on live-streaming video platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Twitch etc.) to try to earn a living. In the course of these performances the musicians generally take requests to supplement their own repertoire.

Assumptions for this document:

1. This is the musician's rendition of a copyright work, often by request, not a recording of the work performed by the original artist.
2. The copyright songs are used in video and not otherwise made available for sale.
3. There is a presumption that money is changing hands through donations and possibly membership sites like Patreon.
4. The live audience could generally be considered "a normal circle of friends", but playback of the recorded live stream may fall outside of this exemption.
5. In addition to performance licensing, separate synchronization permission is also required for putting music to film, which would be impossible to anticipate in a live request scenario.

Contents

Overview

In the past, emerging artists would "cover" popular songs on YouTube for advertising and audience building purposes. These emerging artists would generally be very straightforward about providing the name of the covered song and the artist who made the song famous. The copyright holder of the song has three options, do nothing, monetize the video and collect advertising royalties, or take down the video. Traditionally, the emerging artist would license downloads through iTunes and would not monetize their videos.

In addition to COVID 19, the industry took a double hit as platforms switched to a streaming subscription model. CD-Baby no longer makes CDs, nor offers downloads, iTunes download links are redirected to Apple Music streaming page and Google Play is slated to be shut down and music.youtube will stream audio.

With the download income drying up and the artists adding pay links and subscriptions, this appears to change the advertising only relationship between the artist and the video performance.

Definitions

Performing rights are the right to perform music in public. It is part of copyright law and demands payment to the music's composer/lyricist and publisher [...] Performances are considered "public" if they take place in a public place and the audience is outside of a normal circle of friends and family, including concerts nightclubs, restaurants etc. Public performance also includes broadcast and cable television, radio, and any other transmitted performance of a live song. Permission to publicly perform a song must be obtained from the copyright holder or a collective rights organization.

—Wikipedia:Performing rights

A music synchronization license, or "sync" for short, is a music license granted by the holder of the copyright of a particular composition, allowing the licensee to synchronize ("sync") music with some kind of visual media output (film, television shows, advertisements, video games, accompanying website music, movie trailers, etc.).

—Wikipedia:Synchronization rights

Perfomance Rights Organizations

ASCAP

Do I need an ASCAP music license if I'm streaming my performances through a third-party, such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram?

Fortunately, most popular live-streaming platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram Live, Soundcloud and Twitch are licensed by ASCAP. If individual performers, ensembles and venues only use a licensed platform to stream their content, no other ASCAP licensing is necessary for that streaming activity.If performers, ensembles or venues wish to stream their content through their own digital platform, ASCAP offers a simple, click-thru license that suits most needs: https://licensing.ascap.com/?type=digital.