Performing rights for carol singing

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Nov 14 - 05:21 PM

Now, Topsie, there's a perfect carol;

Watch out where the huskies go
And don't you eat that yellow snow...

But what I like about "Rudolph" and "Frosty," is that they are so corny. And sometimes it's fun to sing corny songs, instead of singing only masterpieces. I can act silly singing "Rudolph." That doesn't work when singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" or "Silent Night." A little silliness perk up a performance.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 26 Nov 14 - 03:53 PM

Joe, I am happy for you to carry on singing it, and Frosty, if it makes you and yours happy.

Just wondering if there are any legends about red-nosed reindeer - red noses being caused by drink. I have heard that reindeer are particularly fond of yellow snow when people nearby have been drinking. (Maybe I'm just overly suspicious.)

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Nov 14 - 02:35 PM

Had a very shiny nose (like a lightbulb).

"Rudolph" was a poem created the advertising department of Montgomery Ward & Company in 1939. It came out as a children's book and sold millions of copies. Johnny Marks rewrote it as a song, and Gene Autry recorded it in 1950. It was Autry's biggest hit.

Hey, people like the song, so why not sing it? I sing "Frosty the Snowman" in our two-song Gene Autry Christmas set, too.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 26 Nov 14 - 01:23 PM

'Rudolph' is a Carol?
Well whooda thunk it? 😳

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 26 Nov 14 - 03:50 AM

Personally, I much prefer carol singing WITHOUT the horrible 'Rudolph'.
My favourite is 'The Cherry Tree Carol'

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: IamNoMan
Date: 25 Nov 14 - 08:15 PM

Penny, just because your paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Nov 14 - 03:03 PM

I lead a caroling group that sings at a dozen nursing homes each Christmas and Fourth of July. A number of songs we sing are under copyright protection. I mean, how can you have Christmas caroling without "Rudolph"? Or Fourth of July without "God Bless America"? By rights, I suppose each nursing home should have performance licenses, but luckily they haven't discovered that. I'm sure the corporations that own the homes wouldn't want to pay for licenses.

Seems to me that there's something wrong when volunteers have to worry about what they can sing and where.

On the other hand, I'm a volunteer church musician, and I do believe that churches should have to pay for the music they use.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Penny S.
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 03:32 PM

Look, when I wake up with an urgent thought in my mind like that, I just have to check it out. Nowadays, I expect everything to be forbidden!

Thanks for confirming the normal state of my mind.

Penny

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 11:48 AM

Here's how i look at it, Penny S. You are already making an effort just by organizing the singing. Why add to your worries by doing copyrighted material? Just do the old familiar PD songs and put your mind at ease.

(I do think that the rumour of a parent leaping out at a school concert is probably just an urban legend.)

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 11:40 AM

Nobody around here seems to know any carols - the buggers beat on your door FIRST, then bellow the first verse of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", then beat on your door again. Then they repeat the exact same performance all the way down the street.

Bah f***ing humbug! 😡

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 11:15 AM

This is off the subject, sort of, but a few years back we had a couple carol our neighborhood with a boombox.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 05:33 AM

CRB maybe be traditional and possibly out of copyright but to comply with health and safety you need a DBS these days. (Data Base Search since you ask).

The only time PRS will speak to you is if you knock on the door of a PRS inspector. But if any forward advertising is used have the trad songsheets ready to prove the case.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 03:10 AM

Don't forget to do a risk assessment, & make sure everybody has hi-vis jackets & suitable protective clothing, sing in several languages in case you are accused of bigotry, all adults must be CRB checked & don't let anyone take photos. Oh & enjoy yourselves. (not too much or they might tax it)

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 02:50 AM

Nobody will know, nobody will care. Stop wittering over nothing, just get out there and belt 'em out!

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 14 - 12:47 AM

Go ahead and do your carolling. If someone busts you on performing rights, go to the media - newspapers, Facebook, radio -- make sure it gets known what the nonprofit is that you are collecting for. I doubt very much that anyone will make a fuss. If you want to really be sure, just do the age-old songs that are in the public domain.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: IamNoMan
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 06:07 PM

Happy Birthday is still under copyright. Put a card in your acapella case that says: All songs are performed for educational and spiritual purposes. Repeat it in Kanji if you know how. That will slow the greed heads down.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 05:56 PM

Don't worry, go ahead. After all, isn't Happy Birthday still copyright? Some laws are made to be ignored, as a matter of principal.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 04:47 PM

Just go and sing them! I can't see that anyone will complain. But if neighbours leap out, just curl your lip, sneer at them and carry on.

Good luck in your fundraising.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 04:22 PM

I wouldn't worry about it.

Subject: RE: Performing rights for carol singing
From: GUEST,Pete from seven stars link
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 02:04 PM

No idea penny, but hope it goes well.

Subject: Performing rights for carol singing
From: Penny S.
Date: 23 Nov 14 - 11:45 AM

We are thinking of having a group go round our neighbourhood - I am wondering how performing rights applies. Obviously most of the old familiar carols are not a problem, but I was wondering about the more modern things we used to teach the children at school. Mary's Boy Child or The Virgin Mary, for example. Or other pieces published in Black's collections "Merrily to Bethlehem" or "Sing Nowell". We'll be, if we do it, collecting for the DEC Ebola appeal.
Is itinerant singing covered by legislation? I don't want to find one of our neighbours leaping out to stop us as rumour had it some parent who worked for a publishers did to a school concert.

Penny