Playing choice of music at funerals

Primrose

Can somebody please advise me what the legal/copyright position is regarding playing a piece of music at a funeral if:


a) it comes from a CD in your own collection?
b) if it is something you have recorded from a site like YouTube?

Do crematoriums keep a standard stock of music from which you can choose or do you generally have to provide your own CD or other device with the music recorded on it?

As this relates to future funeral planning rather than an immediate event, what is the best way of storing the required music for when it's needed, given that technology is continually changing and updating?

iammumtoone

Thats a goods question. I don't know the answer but would like to think/hope that nobody would go after the bereaved for copyright infringement for playing a song at a funeral.

Robin9

From the PPL (Church Services) website


The PRS for Music and PPL church licences are not currently required for music played or performed during Acts of Worship (regular services, weddings/funerals) provided that no entry fee is charged.

I steward many funeral services at my local Church and we have equipment that can play MP3, CD , i-pod etc - not all churches will in which case the Funeral Director might need a CD player.

Technically the only issue we have is with downloads onto burnt CD's

david39

I would have thought that the, place of worship is responsible for payment of royalties as it is they who are playing the music. As a previous poster has said, I doubt that any are due in any case.

fewgroats

I was planning on an entry fee to help pay for it.

Primrose

Could you explain what the initials PPL and PRS (Performing Rights Society?) stand for please?

And exactly what is the technical issue with downloads copied onto a burnt CD? Is that the sound quality is not good?


I'm not sure whether you're talking about music from a CD which has simply been copied onto a blank CD (so that the original is not lost or mislaid after the funeral service) versus music which has simply been downloaded and copied straight onto a blank CD.

Linton

Crematoriums have a large selection of music CDs and probably can get almost anything else you want given a bit of notice.

SevenOfNine

Crematoriums nowadays don't need a large selection of music, nor do you need to supply your own. They subscribe to Wesley Media Music Library (google it), see if your venue is listed in client's library.

If it is, you can see which music they can already access, if what you wanted isn't there already you can contact Wesley Music & ask for it to be added to the 'play list' of your chosen venue. They will do so & give you a reference number to pass on so your venue can locate it in their play list.....job done.

This went very smoothly for our son's funeral last year, no charge other than the astronomical fee a crematorium already charges!

You can listen to short bursts of the music on your PC to see which artist you want from those that may have recorded it, but only a couple of minutes at a time, it keeps cutting out & I assume because of copyright or licensing.

Can't say what a church does.

Our funeral director mentioned it first & the crematorium filled in the blanks so we knew how to sort it out.

Savvy_Sue

Primrose wrote: »

And exactly what is the technical issue with downloads copied onto a burnt CD? Is that the sound quality is not good?

No, it's the copyright issue (although the sound quality may not be good!)

Primrose wrote: »

I'm not sure whether you're talking about music from a CD which has simply been copied onto a blank CD (so that the original is not lost or mislaid after the funeral service) versus music which has simply been downloaded and copied straight onto a blank CD.

In either case, the issue is the same.

Good to hear that there is a sensible solution!

Robin9

A friend gave the following technical response re CD's

"One issue with home-burned CDs is the tracking of the drive; the recording laser may not be aligned perfectly, which means the same drive would be OK with reading it back, but a properly aligned one could struggle.

Also, some drives are more tolerant than others at reading
imperfect discs.

Also, are we talking uncompressed sound files here or mp3 (compressed) files? That is more relevant on SD or USB thumb drive, but there are some CD players which have the capability of playing mp3 format discs and others which don't."

In reality we found that some home-burned CD's just wouldn't play. After having had the problem with 2 weddings we will only use manufactured CD's. And yes we tried the "faulty" CD's on 4 different players.

Malthusian

iammumtoone wrote: »

I don't know the answer but would like to think/hope that nobody would go after the bereaved for copyright infringement for playing a song at a funeral.

I'd like to think that nobody would go after the bereaved for stealing flowers from a florists or marble from a quarry so they can put on a funeral but apparently they do.

(Yes, I am aware that copyright infringement is different from theft, and a civil wrong rather than a criminal offence, but the principle still applies - you have to pay for goods and services even if someone you know has died.)

The question really needs to be asked to the crematorium. If what you want is Abide With Me or Always Look On The Bright Side of Life or Disco Inferno like everybody else that has ever been cremated, they will almost certainly be able to accomodate you. If you're after Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor then you probably need to ask them whether you can plug in an iPod or send them an MP3.