When adult amateur dressage rider Katrina Heilbroner began crafting musical freestyles for her mare Odanse GS, she took into account almost everything: her mare’s gaits, the music genre, and the beats per minute of her favorite songs.
But not for a moment did she consider checking whether her preferred soundtrack had been appropriately licensed for broadcast.
“Because it’s all really opaque,” she said. “How would I even do that? And all just for maybe one or two livestreamed freestyle rides?”
For adult amateurs like Heilbroner, the U.S. Dressage Finals is likely the only competition where music licensing would ever be an issue, because many of the competition rides are livestreamed. Knowing none of her other competitions had livestream capability, Heilbroner chose to ride to music by popular musicians—Madonna and Adele—and accept that, if she qualified for U.S. Dressage Finals, her music would likely be muted on any USEF/USDF livestream or social media post.
“I think it would matter more to me if generally things were streamed more, but because most adult amateur classes aren’t even livestreamed anyway, it doesn’t come up often except at Finals. In an ideal world, we would all be able to stream all the music, and it would be much more fun to let friends who can’t be at the actual show watch. But it’s complicated,” Heilbroner said. “People have been really worried about it online.”
Responding to confusion about music licensing on social media, the U.S. Equestrian Federation sent an email to members on Nov. 21 with new guidance for riders, designers and choreographers who intend to create dressage musical freestyles.
As has been the case since 2001, riders and show organizers will still have access to music licenses with American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI) for live performances through USEF’s contracts with the nonprofit organizations, which have a combined library of 25 million songs. For the vast majority of musical freestyle rides, music licensing is secure through these agreements, though some songs are not in the library or not licensable. Riders in USEF competitions will not be required to pay fees to license their own music selections, for now.
However, different types of licenses are required depending on how the music is used. Freestyles performed in front of live audiences—all those classes in rings and shows not being livestreamed—only need public performance licenses, which are secured through the 2001 ASCAP/BMI contract. But for livestreamed freestyles, the music needs an additional synchronization license to be played.
“Without securing the appropriate broadcast licensing for music, USEF cannot publish any form of unlicensed music without the risk of music copyright infringement, which carries severe penalties and potential fines,” the USEF email stated. Freestyles that are promoted by USEF (via livestream on USEF network, or on social media) must have music that is either muted, licensed for broadcast, or replaced by USEF with color commentary or other licensed music.
At U.S. Dressage Finals, Heilbroner’s freestyle rides ultimately weren’t livestreamed at all, much to her disappointment.
“I told my parents to go watch it, and then when I went and checked later, it wasn’t there,” she said. “So I don’t even know what happened or whether that choice was because of music licensing.
“It’s a real challenge,” she added.
Muted or otherwise dubbed dressage freestyles are a problem for everyone in the dressage industry, according to freestyle designer Collier Wimmer, owner of Three Wishes Freestyles.
“In freestyles with no music, spectators don’t know what they’re watching,” she said. “This is an issue, because freestyles are how we continue to grow the sport and bring outsiders in. Spectators may not know the complexities of the sport, but when they see a horse dancing to Avicii or Top Gun or Snoop Dogg, they’re going to have that connection built in, and be drawn in.”
“In freestyles with no music, spectators don’t know what they’re watching. This is an issue, because freestyles are how we continue to grow the sport and bring outsiders in.”
Collier Wimmer, freestyle designer
Securing synchronization music licenses has become more important as livestreaming of equestrian events has become more popular.
When the International Olympic Committee required all athletes to use ClicknClear, a music license verification service, to validate their music for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Wimmer first anticipated that changes might be coming.
“A lot of us freestyle designers saw the writing on the wall at that point with ClicknClear, that these licenses and fees might become a problem,” she said. “They could eventually trickle down. But to which shows and how far the trickle-down effect will be, we aren’t sure.”
One proposal is to use ClicknClear—which USEF representatives said other national federations use for dressage freestyle music licensing—in all livestreamed freestyle competitions. Use of the program was strongly encouraged for this year’s U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions (Illinois) and the U.S. Equestrian Open of Dressage Final, held last month at Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, California. But there are concerns that the platform’s process is too onerous and slow as it exists now to work on a larger scale.
“For my rider who competed in the U.S. Open, we submitted her music at the end of May, and we did not get an answer from ClicknClear until the end of October,” Wimmer said. “At that point, it’s too late to change your freestyle for U.S. Open Finals.”
But avoiding copyright infringement lawsuits is a priority for USEF, as they can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
“Based on my research, we haven’t had any musical lawsuits in the dressage world in the United States, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be one,” Wimmer said.
“Livestreaming music just seems so harmless, in all honesty, but I can understand USEF not wanting to take that risk,” added Heilbroner.
Other sports have come under legal scrutiny for alleged copyright infringements, such as U.S. figure skater pair Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier for their short program at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
In an effort to give riders and freestyle producers more options for livestreamed rides, USEF announced it has secured a global blanket license (which, as its name suggests, allows riders to use certain music for both public performance and broadcast purposes) with Warner Chappell Music. Riders, show organizers, and freestyle designers can access and use the entire Warner Chappell library for free.
“I’m thrilled that USEF went out and worked with Warner Music and got this global licensing agreement. I think that, combined with the others that they already had in place, [it] really should provide a really solid net of coverage,” Wimmer said.
But questions still linger, particularly about the upper echelons of dressage sport. So far, at certain flagship events, like the U.S. Equestrian Open of Dressage Final, USEF has covered the cost of securing synchronization licenses. Whether that practice will continue remains to be seen.
Though the uncertainty is frustrating, Wimmer stressed that patience is paramount.
“USEF is flying the plane and building it at the same time,” she said, “so I think we are all kind of trying to give each other grace and space to work things out.”
“Music licensing can be an intimidating black hole for adult amateurs looking to do it themselves,” added Heilbroner. “As of right now, there’s not, like, an easy path to say, ‘Hey, I’m making a dressage freestyle, and I would like it to be able to be livestreamed. How do I make sure that happens?’ ”
For now, Wimmer is optimistic about the future of musical freestyles, as riders, show organizers, and USEF continue to champion the value of music to these performances.
“I’m feeling relieved. I know there were a lot of rumors flying around for months, but I never really thought that the house was on fire, so I’m glad that it’s actually not on fire,” she said. “I want dressage to continue to push forward as a sport. And I think freestyles are the way to bring dressage forward with these incredible stories that we tell through music and horses. As a producer and freestyle designer, I want to be able to have as much music at our fingertips. We have incredible artists that we get to work with and utilize and kind of use in a different way.”
Heilbroner wholeheartedly agreed.
“I always joke that dressage is boring until you’re good at it, except for the freestyles,” she said. “They are so fun, and they bring people in. I’m a huge fan of anything we can do to bring the outside world into dressage, and getting access to music is one of those things.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.chronofhorse.com ’
