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When adult amateur dressage rider Katrina Heilbroner<\/a> began crafting musical freestyles for her mare Odanse GS, she took into account almost everything: her mare\u2019s gaits, the music genre, and the beats per minute of her favorite songs.\u00a0<\/p>\n But not for a moment did she consider checking whether her preferred soundtrack had been appropriately licensed for broadcast.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s all really opaque,\u201d she said. \u201cHow would I even do that? And all just for maybe one or two livestreamed freestyle rides?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2014Madonna and Adele\u2014and 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it would matter more to me if generally things were streamed more, but because most adult amateur classes aren\u2019t even livestreamed anyway, it doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t be at the actual show watch. But it\u2019s complicated,\u201d Heilbroner said. \u201cPeople have been really worried about it online.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Responding to confusion about music licensing on social media, the U.S. Equestrian Federation sent an email to members<\/a> on Nov. 21 with new guidance for riders, designers and choreographers who intend to create dressage musical freestyles.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, different types of licenses are required depending on how the music is used. Freestyles performed in front of live audiences\u2014all those classes in rings and shows not being livestreamed\u2014only 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWithout securing the appropriate broadcast licensing for music, USEF\u202fcannot publish any form of unlicensed music without the risk of music copyright infringement, which carries severe penalties and potential fines,\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n At U.S. Dressage Finals, Heilbroner\u2019s freestyle rides ultimately weren\u2019t livestreamed at all, much to her disappointment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI told my parents to go watch it, and then when I went and checked later, it wasn\u2019t there,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t even know what happened or whether that choice was because of music licensing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real challenge,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn freestyles with no music, spectators don\u2019t know what they\u2019re watching,\u201d she said. \u201cThis 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\u2019re going to have that connection built in, and be drawn in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn freestyles with no music, spectators don\u2019t know what they\u2019re watching. This is an issue, because freestyles are how we continue to grow the sport and bring outsiders in.\u201d<\/p>\n Collier Wimmer, freestyle designer<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Securing synchronization music licenses has become more important as livestreaming of equestrian events has become more popular.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the International Olympic Committee required all athletes to use ClicknClear<\/a>, a music license verification service, to validate their music for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Wimmer first anticipated that changes might be coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA 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,\u201d she said. \u201cThey could eventually trickle down. But to which shows and how far the trickle-down effect will be, we aren\u2019t sure.\u201d<\/p>\n One proposal is to use ClicknClear\u2014which USEF representatives said other national federations use for dressage freestyle music licensing\u2014in all livestreamed freestyle competitions. Use of the program was strongly encouraged for this year\u2019s U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions (Illinois) and the\u00a0U.S. Equestrian Open of Dressage Final, held last month at Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, California. But there are concerns that the platform\u2019s process is too onerous and slow as it exists now to work on a larger scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor 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,\u201d Wimmer said. \u201cAt that point, it\u2019s too late to change your freestyle for U.S. Open Finals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But avoiding copyright infringement lawsuits is a priority for USEF, as they can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBased on my research, we haven\u2019t had any musical lawsuits in the dressage world in the United States, but it doesn\u2019t mean there won\u2019t be one,\u201d Wimmer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLivestreaming music just seems so harmless, in all honesty, but I can understand USEF not wanting to take that risk,\u201d added Heilbroner.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other sports have come under legal scrutiny for alleged copyright infringements, such as U.S. figure skater pair Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier\u00a0for their short program<\/a>\u00a0at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n