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Copyright Infringement and the Funeral
Industry
By Scott Johnson
Fifty years ago, the music used at a funeral home
service and at memorial services was limited to the
available talents of an organist or pianist or a
vocalist. More elaborate funeral services might use
larger musical groups such as string quartets or even
small woodwind or brass ensembles. Rarely did funeral
directors think about whether they were following the
strict regulations of copyright infringement law,
because typically the music was being played by actual
human beings instead of on a recording. And more often
than not, the funeral music selected was religious or
spiritual in nature rather than secular.
The introduction of new technology and the boom of the
recording industry has brought forth hundreds of
thousands of pieces of recorded funeral music, both
secular and spiritual. Modern funeral industry
professionals at the request of families are often asked
to choose more progressive and complex music that
previously that fits the many different types available
and fully captures the personality and life of the
deceased. The music chosen for modern day celebrations
of life express not only the decedent's spiritual
convictions, but often even more importantly the values
of the life he/she lived. Funeral directors continue to
individualize services and choose more secular music to
truly reflect the uniqueness of the individual that has
passed. While the availability of unlimited pieces of
funeral music for the funeral industry has improved the
quality and appropriateness of funeral services, it has
made the process of selecting the perfect funeral music
for unique memorial services and funerals much more
time-consuming and expensive for loved ones and
particularly funeral home directors that must pay
exorbitant fees to avoid committing copyright
infringement.
Developed in 1984, United States Copyright Law required
funeral homes to be licensed in order to play music
published by the large music providers such as ASCAP and
BMI at all services. While this copyright infringement
law made it initially difficult for many funeral homes,
the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) made
things easier by establishing a group licensing program
for U.S. funeral homes and other establishments within
the funeral industry that would cover royalties for all
the major music providers.
While the NFDA's program to help with the costs of many
types of funeral music improved the burden of licensing
a bit, many funeral home professionals still find
themselves paying thousands of dollars per month to use
certain types of music, both secular and religious, at
their services. Since the license from the NFDA must be
obtained for any funeral music used within the funeral
home, funeral homes also must front the cost of all
background music piped into the home as well as for
music on-hold for their telephone systems, and this can
certainly prove to be costly, which raises costs for
grieving families and can make the death of a loved one
even more difficult and expensive than it already is
without worrying about the music for either the memorial
service or the funeral.
To help ease the process of creating and maintaining a
large enough music library to represent the vast range
of musical tastes and personalities involved in the
funeral industry, many funeral home professionals are
seeking other lower-cost options that will not force
them to compromise on the quality of the more expensive
funeral music and will still help them adhere to
copyright infringement law. Buyout music is one such
option, and companies such as Royalty Free Music off
such services
http://www.RoyaltyFreeMusic.com offers hundreds of
well-crafted, unique sounding funeral music tracks that
will help capture the spirit of the decedent and bring
some joy for families during the grieving process.
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