high school performances revisited

November 21, 2006 @ 2:54pmoldmediamonger says:
I work in education and I remember when I was in high school there was a record company called Crest Custom Records that would take reel to reel tapes of school bands or choirs and issue the material on an LP. I was thinking that a good fund raiser would be a CD of the high school band or choir. I realize that if they're performing an arrangement of a current "hit", including it on a CD would be a no-no, but what if all they're performing is classical material? I read the entry on this forum about mechanical licensing and if they did perform something current we could send the 9 some cents per song/per unit to Harry Fox and everything would be kosher. Any insight as to reviving the Crest Record concept?

Thanks!
January 4, 2007 @ 9:38amCOvalle says:
I'm not sure- there are some things you have to be careful with when you look at music.
When performing a piece, there are at least two things to consider- the song writer and the performance. There are often more. Looking at classical music, you don't need to worry about the song writer, but you might need to worry about the arrangement, since a band performance of a classical piece is probably not the original classical work, but a derived arrangement that might have copyright associated with it. I don't know enough about music to really answer your question, but I'll try to look into it when I get a chance.

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