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Music and Copyright: Musical Examples

This guide supports professional and curricular activities of performing artists and creators in the Departments of Theatre Arts and Dance and the School of Music.
Licensing Musical Examples

If you are writing a dissertation or thesis or publishing a book, article, or online content and wish to include examples of copyrighted music, you must obtain a license from the copyright holder. In many cases, the rights holder will be a publisher. Below are links to licensing webpages some of the larger publishing houses for classical music.

In some cases, you will need to obtain rights directly from a composer, an individual, or an organization. 

It is important to keep records of permissions received. In the case of a dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that a copy of license agreements or correspondence be included in the document as an appendix.


Publishers

If there is a publisher not on this list that you would like to see added, please contact Music Librarian Katie Buehner <katie-buehner@uiowa.edu>.


Schedule a Copyright Consultation 

Having trouble with finding a rights holder, filling out a licensing request, or other copyright and licensing resource questions?

You can schedule a time to meet one-on-one with music librarian Katie Buehner by scheduling a consultation. The meeting will take place online via Zoom. Click on the blue button to use the scheduler to find a time that fits your calendar and Katie's.