NACUBO and ACE Issue Update on Global Music Rights Negotiations
May 30, 2018

​NACUBO and ACE issued the following statement on May 30, 2018:

For more than 30 years, the National Association of College and University Business Officers​ (NACUBO) and ACE have collaborated to develop model agreements with performance-rights orga​nizations (“PROs”) that NACUBO and ACE members and the PROs may use to facilitate the negotiation of blanket performance rights licenses. Examples include model agreements that NACUBO and ACE have developed with:

  • the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP),
  • Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), and
  • SESAC (originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers).

These model licenses–which are informed by periodic negotiations undertaken by NACUBO and ACE with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC–allow a college or university to pay an annual fee to those PROs to cover the public playing or performing on campus and at certain types of off-campus functions and events organized by affiliated groups, of music in the organizations’ respective catalogs.

In 2014, a fourth PRO emerged: Global Music Rights (GMR). It was formed by Azoff MSG Entertainment. Discussions among GMR, NACUBO and ACE during 2017-18 about developing a GMR model license for the campus environment ultimately proved unsuccessful. Therefore, if a college or university wishes to have music in GMR’s repertory publicly played or performed on its campus, it may need to enter into discussions directly with GMR in order to arrive at agreed-upon terms of a GMR license.

Use of Copyrighted Music on College and University Campuses​ (PDF 1KB)​, a joint report by ACE and NACUBO in 2013—a year prior to GMR’s creation—​provides a general overview of the legal issues relating to music copyright. The report should not be used as a substitute for the advice of informed legal counsel.​