VARSITY & USA CHEER COMPLIANCE INFO

Cheer Music Madness

VARSITY & USA CHEER COMPLIANCE INFO

In regards to the growing concern for compliant cheer music, if you plan to attend a Varsity or USA Cheer Camp or Competition, you will need to supply music that complies with their new music guidelines. Their new guidelines state that due to copyright infringement concerns, cheer music producers can no longer create or edit cheer music with origional popular songs (unless they obtain all necessary licenses from all parties involved, which is very expensive and time consuming, something not possible for music producers in the cheer industry). The music guidelines state that cover recordings of popular music may be used in cheer and dance mixes only if the purchase and license of the cover recording includes an explicit right to alter the cover recordings and create new works from these cover recording elements.

The answer to these concerns are as followed:

OPTION 1: Create your own original songs for your cheer mix.

OPTION 2: Bring a legally purchased copy of a polular song, from Itunes, Amazon, etc.... Teams may not re-mix these songs in any way (such as adding sound effects, changing tempo or mixing with any other recording), but teams may make minor edits for timing purposes only. For example, removing a chorus or bridge to fir the duration of the team's performance. This may be good for Dance or Jazz.

OPTION 3: Create and edit a cheer mix with licensed cover songs from unleashthebeats.com OR powermusiclicensing.com. These cover songs will cost $20 each, on top of our regular mixing/editing fee. Each song purchased can only be used for the one team it was purchased for. We cannot keep it in our library and use it repeatedly. (This does not mean you can't use a song that another team uses, it just means you have to purchase the song to get the license).

CHEER MUSIC MADNESS can create compliant cheer music with OPTION #3. We will be working with UNLEASHTHEBEATS.COM or POWERMUSICLICENSING.COM for the cover songs and licensing. They offer many songs, old and new, to pick from.

We will be keeping our music mixing/edit fees the same as last year. The only additional fees will be the $20 per song for each mix that needs to be Varsity compliant. If you are not attending any Varsity or USA Cheer events, CHECK WITH THE COMPETITION YOU ARE ENTERING TO SEE IF YOU NEED COMPLIANT MUSIC.

Once you place your order for music with us, we will need your song list, with the song item number, given to you from the website. We will invoice you for the amount of songs that you want for your cheer mix. Once we receive payment, we will purchase the songs and license. From there, we can legally create your custom cheer mix that will comply to the new music changes. Once the music is completed, we will email you the music and the license for your records. The license is valid for one year and cannot be transferred to any other individual or organization. You will be required to show proof of licensing at Varsity events. If you need to switch out a song, later on, just let us know. We can invoice you for the new license, song and edit.

Because of the strict licensing rules, any Varsity/USA Cheer compliance mix must be paid for in full, before we start production of your cheer mix.

PLEASE NOTE: Although Varsity and USA Cheer offer a partial list of approved producers, those producers create origional songs/mixes which can be costly. Their list does not include every music producer that can create compliant music using cover songs. CHEER MUSIC MADNESS CAN ABSOLUTELY CREATE CHEER MUSIC THAT WILL BE COMPLIANT WITH VARSITY AND USA CHEER.

These guidelines should not be construed as legal advice, If you have any concerns, we encourage you to obtain independent legal advice.

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Barbara Piscitelli * 732-390-8711 * cheermusicmadness@gmail.com