by Judy Robinson
JEA Mentor Committee member
Mentoring Monday
Judy Robinson
A yearbook adviser asked her JEA mentor if the yearbook could include music as part of the yearbook’s online content.
All published music is copyrighted, and using it is a copyright violation. It’s also a copyright violation to do a remix, i.e., take a popular song and have someone play it on their instrument or keyboard.
There are places online you can buy rights to perform copyrighted music, or rights to play copyrighted music but the popular music of the day would likely be out of price range for most schools.
Option 1: : Look for indie musicians and ask if you can use their original compositions with credit. Sometimes they readily give their permission and you need to include it. Look on SoundCloud or Vimeo for Creative Commons music. Other resources are listed in this article.
Option 2: Make your own original music. The school may have a talented computer musician (GarageBand) or guitarist. Make sure they wrote the song (and it’s not a remix), and you include written permission on the slideshow.
There is NOT fair use for popular music in slideshows.
I’ll be showing the mentors at the Mentor Forum (San Francisco JEA/NSPA Convention) how, on GarageBand for iPad, you can make and use your own music for slideshows. My students at the University of Florida love learning this for their online multimedia, and it keeps them from violating copyright.
To be ready for this session, download the GarageBand app ($4.99) to your iPad and bring you iPad to the Forum.
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The Mentor Forum will be held on Thursday, April 25, during the JEA/NSPA Convention. The training for the new JEA mentors also will be held that day.