Music Publishers Association

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, PMLL has been liaising closely with teachers about the Schools Printed Music Licence (SPML) and understanding how we can help to continue to support their music education while schools are operating largely remotely, other than for children of key workers.

The SPML (which was introduced in 2013) allows staff at schools (and those employed by music services) to:

• Make photocopies of sheet music (providing an original is owned);
• Photocopy up to 10% of an anthology or workbook (by number of works or pages);
• Scan copies of sheet music and store on a secure network (or VLE) for access by students and staff;
• Make arrangements of music.

Following engagement with teachers, it is now understood that not all schools have a VLE or similar secure network set up which would allow students and staff to access resources from home.

Therefore, the PMLL board has considered these issues and challenges carefully and has agreed, on a temporary (for the period that schools are required to operate remotely) and non-precedential basis, to revise the terms and conditions of the SPML to allow –

• Copies of sheet music to be shared to students and parents by email;
• Copies of sheet music to be shared via a file sharing service such as Google Drive or Dropbox.