Not Legal Advice:
Yes. Each time a song is performed on American Idol, the show’s producers pay the owner of that song’s rights a royalty fee.
There are several fees paid to a music publisher when licensing music for a production: mechanical royalty, performance royalty, synchronization license, videogram license, digital broadcast rights.
A performance royalty is a fee paid to a music publisher when one of its songs is performed or played publicly. It can be categorized as either dramatic or nondramatic.
For television, the songs that the contestants sing on American Idol are considered nondramatic performances. For these nondramatic performances, the fee does not go to the publisher directly. Rather, the music publisher uses a performing rights society to collect fees and enforce the copyright.
There are two main performing rights societies: BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers).
These non-profit organizations collect performance fees and distribute them to their members, A third, and smaller, private organization is called SESAC.
A songwriter generally belongs to only ne of these organizations. Radio and television stations, as well as retail outlets, can purchase blanket licenses from the performing rights societies and use any song in their libraries.
A dramatic performance is one in which the music helps advance or develop a story line in the production. The performance royalty for a dramatic production must be negotiated directly with the music publisher.
Refer to Cengage Advantage Books: Visual Storytelling: Videography and Post Production in the Digital Age to learn more.
American Idol returned for its 15th and final season starting with auditions in Atlanta and Denver. Get the recap from Billboard.com.
Get the latest news and updates for American Idol farewell season via their official Twitter and Facebook pages.