Last week, Team USA’s Nathan Chen nabbed Olympic gold after his free skate routine, performed to a medley of Elton John songs from the 2019 biopic Rocketman. The win prompted a congratulations tweet from the Rocket Man himself, which, judging by the fact that it didn’t mention any copyright infringement, seems to suggest that the proper music licensing protocol had been followed.

上周，美国队的Nathan Chen获得了自由滑的冠军，他进行表演的伴奏曲目为Elton Johns在2019年的传记片《火箭人》中所演唱的歌曲。“火箭人”亲自发推向Nathan Chen表示祝贺。通过所发布的推文，其并没有提及任何侵权，这似乎意味着双方都在遵照某种恰当的音乐许可协定。

Nab：~ sth获得；拿取to take or get sth

So, what exactly is that protocol?

那么，这个协定到底是种什么协定呢？

When producers want to include copyrighted songs in filmed programs like TV shows or movies, they have to acquire a synchronization license, or “sync license,” essentially authorizing them to synchronize the music with their own video footage. As The New York Times reports, sync licensing fees can sometimes be prohibitively expensive if the song is by an Elton John-level superstar.

当制作人希望将有版权的歌曲加到拍摄的节目中，比如电视节目或电影中时，他们需要获得同步许可（简称“sync license”），该许可的主要作用是授权制作人将音乐和自己的视频同步在一起。如《纽约时报》报道，如果歌曲是由Elton John这样的超级巨星演唱，那么同步许可费的价格有可能会是天价。

Prohibitively：价格高得离谱

Luckily for figure skaters, their Olympic routines are considered live performances, and therefore require a much less costly licensing agreement. Also luckily for figure skaters, they’re pretty far removed from both the paperwork and the payment. Instead, the broadcaster—in this case, NBC—is responsible.

对于花样滑冰选手而言，幸运的是，他们在奥运比赛中的表演属于现场演出，因此，其所需要的许可协定的价格也会低得多。另外一个幸运的点是，花样滑冰运动员与所有的文书和付款基本都没什么关系。相反，在该情况下，广播公司NBC需要负责文书和付款方面的事宜。

As IPWatchdog explains, many musicians and music publishers outsource licensing power for their entire catalogs to public rights organizations (PROs) like Broadcasting Music Inc. (BMI) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). TV networks, performance venues, and other music-playing establishments can then buy a blanket license that grants them public performance rights to every song under the PRO’s purview. Blanket license fees aren’t one-size-fits-all; they depend on everything from audience size to frequency, and licensees are often expected to track their music use so the PROs can determine artist royalties.

如IPwatchdog所解释的，许多音乐人和词曲版权管理公司会将整个内容的许可权外包给公共权力组织（PROS），如广播音乐公司（BMI）、美国作曲家、作者和出版公司协会（ASCAP）。电视网络、表演场所以及其他播放音乐的公司可以购买一个总许可。有了这个总许可，就可以获得PRO权限范围内的每首歌曲的公共播放权。总许可费用并非是标准收费；它们具体取决于观众的人数、播放频次。而被许可方还需要经常跟踪音乐的使用情况，以便PRO来决定艺人的版权费。

Music Publisher：词曲版权管理公司

Purview：权限

Blanket license：总许可

But the bottom line is this: If you’re skating to “Run the World (Girls)” during your Olympic program—which France’s Maé-Bérénice Méité did at the 2018 PyeongChang Games—rest assured that NBC has taken care of making sure Beyoncé gets her check.

原文来源：Mental Floss

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