Who Gets Paid When a Choir Is Broadcast

A broadcast of a choir performance puts two rights in motion and one piece of paper. The composition side pays the songwriter and publisher through the performing rights organisation; the recording side pays the master owner through a separate licence. The cue sheet is the line that carries the first of those payments from the station to the PRO, and an arrangement right sits on top of the composition as a second, narrower claim.

What does a cue sheet record when a choir performance is broadcast?

A cue sheet is the broadcast log that lists every piece of music used in a programme, in order, with its timing and its authorship. For a choral broadcast it records the title of the work, the composer and lyricist, the publisher, the arranger where one is credited, the duration of the segment, and whether the music sits under speech, under a visual, or plays as a feature. The station or the producer of the programme files it with the performing rights organisation that licenses the broadcast.

The cue sheet is not a contract and it is not an invoice. It is evidence. The PRO samples those sheets, weights the timings, and distributes the blanket licence revenue it has collected from broadcasters. A choir performance that never reaches a cue sheet is a performance that never reaches the distribution. This is why the arranger credit line matters: if the arrangement is named on the sheet, the arrangement claim can be traced. Ensembles that keep their own records of what was aired, and when, are doing the paperwork that the station may or may not do carefully. The same discipline applies to any group that performs in public, whether it is a jazz choir for adults working from a set of standards or a church ensemble singing a commissioned piece.

What is the difference between the composition right and the recording right?

The composition right covers the song itself: the notes, the lyrics, the harmony as written. It belongs to the songwriter and, usually, to a publisher who administers it. When a broadcast uses that song, the broadcaster needs a performance licence for it, and the money flows to the writer and publisher through the PRO.

The recording right covers the specific captured performance: the take, the mix, the master file. It belongs to whoever owns the master, which may be a label, the ensemble itself, or a commissioning body. A broadcast of that recording needs a separate licence, and the money flows to the master owner. In the United States, sound recordings have their own performance right for digital and non-interactive broadcast, administered through a different collection route than the composition side. In many other territories, the two are collected together by a single society but still accounted separately.

For a choir, the split is practical. The ensemble may own the master of its own live recording, which means it can license that recording. It almost never owns the composition, which means it cannot license the song. Two permissions, two payees, two lines of accounting.

What does an arrangement right add to a performance licence?

An arrangement is a new musical work built on an existing one. The arranger takes a composition and reworks it for a specific voicing, a specific ensemble, a specific key. That act of reworking creates a copyright in the arrangement, separate from the underlying composition, provided the arrangement is original enough to stand on its own and the arranger had the right to make it.

In a broadcast, the arrangement right adds a second claim on the same performance. The underlying composition still pays its writer and publisher. The arrangement pays its arranger, and sometimes a publisher who administers the arrangement. The two are not alternatives; they stack. A cue sheet that names only the original composer leaves the arranger unpaid, even though the broadcast used the arranger's voicing, the arranger's reharmonisation, the arranger's transitions.

There is a limit. An arrangement of a work still in copyright requires permission from the copyright owner, often through a print licence or a mechanical licence if copies are made. An arrangement of a public domain work does not need that permission, but the arrangement itself is still protected. Either way, the arranger's name belongs on the cue sheet line.

How the money actually moves

Follow one broadcast. A station airs a concert recording of a choir singing an arranged standard. The station holds a blanket licence from a PRO, which covers the composition side for its whole repertoire. The station or the producer files a cue sheet listing the work, the composer, the publisher, the arranger, and the duration.

The PRO samples the sheet, allocates a share of its licence revenue to the writer and publisher of the composition, and, where the arrangement is registered and credited, to the arranger. Separately, the master owner of the concert recording is paid under the recording licence route, if that route applies in the territory and the recording is registered.

What the choir receives depends on what it owns. If the ensemble owns the master, it can claim the recording side. If a member arranged the piece and registered the arrangement, that member can claim the arrangement side. If neither is true, the choir's payment is indirect: the performance promotes the ensemble, and the ensemble's income comes from tickets, fees, and commissions rather than from the broadcast.

Why the paperwork is the whole game

Most unpaid broadcast uses are not disputes about principle. They are missing lines. A cue sheet without the arranger's name, a master that was never registered, a publisher who was never identified: each gap removes a payee from the distribution.

For an ensemble, the working habits are simple. Keep a log of every aired performance with date, station, and timing. Register the master if the group owns it. Credit the arranger in the programme and on any submission to the broadcaster. Confirm that the arranger has registered the arrangement with a PRO or a publisher. None of this requires a lawyer for a single broadcast; it requires a folder and a habit.

The composition side and the recording side are two different rights with two different owners. The cue sheet is the document that lets the first of them travel. The arrangement right is the line that most often goes missing, and it is the line that pays the person who made the choir's version sound like the choir.