U.S. Figure Skating's Controversial Music Decision

Danke schon the video was beautiful

Oh my goodness! I get it because of copyright law, but still, it makes me upset because now I can't use a lot of foreign language music for any USFS competitions now. ASCAP only control 75% while a third party controls the rest of the 25%. I'm an ISI member currently, but I did have USFS membership in college and am planning to renew that membership through my club this year. Not sure if ISI is gonna go through with something like this as well.

So can the licensed music still be cut/combined/mixed?

So then at televised events, like the Olympics, no music can be heard while skaters skate?

This is more than fair. As a songwriter myself, I wouldn’t want people ripping off my work. It even happens in the music industry itself. About 85-90% of songwriters are covered by ASCAP and BMI since they are open to anyone who has published one song. The other two American organizations are invitation only, if I remember correctly, so only have a small number of songwriters as members.

This had me worried. But thankfully my current programs are either public domain or already covered by BMI/ASCAP.

@bridgetb3178
Great video with a clear explanation. Thank you! USFSA should have hired you to get this message out to everyone in an understandable way! 😊😉 I understand & respect the copyright issues, but my fear is how the no-streaming/no recording/sharing for personal use rule will impact the future of figure skating. We aren’t selling or profiting off of our skater’s programs. We simply want to share their hard work & successes with friends & family, and it seems that is no longer allowed; even with 100% cleared songs? Thanks Aimee!

Where I get confused is other sports that also heavily rely on music: dance, gymnastics, synchronized swimming etc all use music. Their events are streamed and can replay. But our sport for some reason now can’t under these new rules. How are we supposed to get people interested in this sport if we are posting videos without music constantly? Usfsa couldn’t have looked at other music focused sports and how they handle this? For the most part you already can’t replay events on peacock. There has to be a better way to do this

My song is not on ASCAP, BMI or Click N Clear. My program is fully choreographed. What am I supposed to do?

NO! I WILL BE A DEATH OF SLOW OR FAST DEATH! FIGURE SKATING

WRONG! IF IT WAS JUST THAT. NO ONE SKATER WOULD COMPLAIN. BUT, THERE WILL BE "NO! NO!NO! VIDEOS WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT USFS SANCTIONED COMPETITIONS! THERE'LL BE NO LONGER LIVE STREAMING AND VIDEOS AT COMPETITIONS FROM LOCAL, SECTIONAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL INCLUDING, TOI, NATIONAL SOLO DANCE, SYNCRO, SHOWCASE COMPETITIONS AND SHOWCASE NATIONALS AS WELL. MANY
COMPETITVE ADULT SKATERS ARE ALREADY CHOSING TO OPT. OUT AND OTHERS ARE LOOKING FOR OTHER OPTIONS. UNLIKE CHILDERN SKATING IS SOMETHING WE CHOSE TO OR NOT TO DO. THERE'S NO SHEEPS WOOL OVER OUR EYES. THIS WASN'T PLANNED, A GUN WAS PUT TO USFS'S HEAD AND THEY ACTED ACCORDINGLY.
THE PROOF WILL BE WHEN QUALIFYING TIME COMES. AND USFS NATIONALS IN JANUARY WILL IT BE LIVE STREAMING OR BE AVAILABLE FOR PLAY BACK. WORLDS, ISU JR./SR. LIKE "SKATE AMERICA!"
Q: WHEN YOU TAKE YOUR STUDENTS COMPETITIONS. THEIR PARENTS /RELIVTIVES WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY, TAKE VIDEOS, AND UPLOAD THEIR VIDEOS. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO EXPLAIN TO THEM THAT $500.00 DRESS CAN NOT BE SEEN EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE AT THE PERFORMANCE.?

Now competitions start removing the professional videographers as they can’t sell the video to the parents. How will it be good for the sport? Most of skaters are kids and doing it for fun. All these will be their memories. Having a professional video is important. Now this rule kills that.

Aimée, I am most upset that U.S. Figure Skating will not pay for the performance licensing rights to livestream figure skating events with music and provide video sales of figure skating events with music. In 2024, most people in society are used to watching figure skating events that are livestreamed with music and video on demand on social media. I do not know of anyone who wants to watch a figure skating event livestreamed or video recorded without the music. Slowly but surely, going forward figure skating is going to suffer greatly and lose many participants and audiences. I would not mind even paying an additional annual fee to U.S. Figure Skating so that livestreaming with music and video sales with music can be offered. Also, I feel very sad for the many videographers who have livestreamed and video recorded many figure skating events in the past. These videographers are going to financially suffer greatly or maybe even lose their businesses, which is so not right! Unless the decision is reversed to once again offer livestreaming with music and video sales with music, I will not compete in U.S. Figure Skating events.

this is going to kill USFS and it has many problems already i see skaters just getting out and the number of skaters dropping.. all this over one lawsuit

Excellent video that needs to be seen by everybody including everyone who uses recorded music in any context, eg if you run any kind of store, from boutique to salon to"head shop", anyone who makes a You Tube video,anyone who makes a musical parody, (yes, Weird Al DOES pay the license to use other peoples music) anyone who makes covers or compilations People dont know enough about music licensing and I have had so many arguments with people online about this. My only quibble is that the rights to music dont always remain with the composer, sadly, Vast numbers of compositions are now or maybe have been since day 1, in the hands of corporations. But that changes nothing, EVERYONE MUST PAY the license. That is the law Thank you for this great video, I realise you made it for the context of skating, but the matter is universal and honestly I am surprised that this hasnt part of Public Performance 101 for skaters, gymnasts, actors, singers, dancers and more all along. Music has never been free to use since recorded music has been a thing. Shop owners, restaurateurs, bars, clubs... if you are playing music and its a public space, this means you too

Honestly it’s terrible. NQS days away and programs are ready to go. This is very last minute and very poorly communicated

what about those no copyright music for background etc ?

Wow😮 usfs making changes to its music policy that's will make figure skating less watchable. I guess I'll settle to watching it with VPN

What are your recommendations if the song you're skating to is not in Click and Clear's database? They have a request section on their page, but I am wondering if there's any other avenues I can pursue getting permission? Thanks!

What about a business who edit music for skaters? Is the same thing happening in Canada with Skate Canada & Socan (Canadian version of BMI & ASCAP)? I was an adult skater, still a music editor, singer songwriter who is a member of Socan. So can use to look the other way in Canada for Skate Canada skaters prior to 2020. As of now, I have no idea what is going on in Canada music licensing wise for figure skating. The last year I edited figure music was early 2020.

And life gets more complicated. I was wondering when this copyright stuff would start coming down. Everybody wants as much money as possible. Use it......pay for it. It never ends.

I'm all for artists being paid, especially where money is being made. But this is extreme (it sounds like I can't even practice to a song I like without paying royalties), and I find it interesting that ISU doesn't apparently have anything like this policy. Nor does ISI. It's just USFSA.

Skating silent seems easier.

Thanks for this. People were angry about this on the figure skating Reddit and I tried to explain the law to them and was furiously downvoted… just because it’s relatively unknown and unintuitive doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been there. The law just was not being properly enforced and people were getting away with it. It isn’t as simple as the organization buying blanket licenses to allow video recording and sales… the videographers are often independent contractors and not employees of USFS (at least at local events where people would be buying videos of their kid.) I’m not saying the law is without fault but copyright law extends farther than most realize… USFS is just trying to protect their clubs and members.

Another very illegal thing that happens every day in figure skating is selling the service of cutting and re-arranging music to fit time requirements or use multiple songs. If someone is charging you to cut your music…. Not technically legal unless they acquired the rights from the publisher to do so. Which is not covered by USFS.

Hmmm how does this affect virtual testing? I always thought that venues had purchased a blanket license to play music. The stupid thing here is, over the years I discovered so much good music from watching skating, and bought so much from those musicians. If they would allow it, they would gain a lot of paying fans.

Someone needs to make record companies illegal or make it so it's not legal for them to hold copyrights or enforce them in certain situations. I am literally so sick of every facet of life being RUINED by these people. It doesn't even have a public benefit.

USFS SHOULD BE PAYING FOR RIGHTS IF IT'S A PROBLEM. WHY DO WE PAY FOR MEMBERSHIPS OTHERWISE? Like I'll just straight up quit.

So what about virtual testing? It may have already been addressed but did not see it when I sort of quickly scanned the comments. Great video thanks for taking the time to create it!!!

I've always been intrigued by coaches and their rise to stardom. I always wanted to get into doing that and choreographing ever since i trained my younger brothers and cousins to skate. I guess i'd have to start with volunteering more at the rink lol

i just buy the piece of music to be used as the artist has to earn a living. It isn't usually that expensive so why not just support the artist as its a win win scenario.

Im just so disappointed that i will be able to watch fewer competitions. I dont have cable, and these rules sound like the places I've been paying to stream comps will no longer be able to stream them? Or they will just be silent? Will they be able to broadcast anything, or will it all have to be silent?

If these rules mean id have to get cable to watch comps, i just wont be able to watch them anymore

Two words: Fair Use. Using a piece of music, especially just clips from pieces, should be completely permissible under the Fair Use Doctrine. End of story.

Excellent video! Super clear and informed explanation of the situation. Speaking as a musician with many releases under belt, 99% of artist sget paid virtually nothing for their music. And actually, the athletes are in exactly the same situation as we are. 99% of them also get paid nothing for all their sacrifices and hard work. Instead of railing against the new rule, I would love to see changes made that allows more skaters to get paid and make a living off of their life's work. People are making a lot of money off figure skating, but unfortunately, exactly like the music industry, it's not the people who's work is at the core of it.

It would be epic, If skaters started composing their own original music instead of trying to get a license.

If when you purchase a song, you only buy the rights to listen to that song privately and not play that music publicly even when you’re not making money off playing that music, they need to sue all of the passengers on the NYC subway for playing music without headphones. Sometimes you even get a free performance out of them as well

This is my bizarre thought on this July 4th.
Does this mean that our guys on our aircraft carriers that use songs to dance to while signaling the pilots to take off & post on YT have to do the same thing? Good grief!

Are we going to see a lot more programs using music that is classical or 100 years old? Since that classical music is public domain?

Hi! So we can only pick songs from the allowed list, but even though it’s “approved” we still can’t hear the songs on live videos. So what’s the point of going off of this approved list if the music is just going to be muted anyways?

Quick questions I’m hoping you can answer about this policy. When does this policy go into effect? Also, what is the rule number in the USFSA Rulebook? If it’s not in the Rulebook, can you provide a link to the policy on USFSA’s website. Thanks lots in advance!

Could you do a video about coach ice? I only have a few students as of right now, I don’t need to purchase coach ice for testing or competition yet. I saw your other videos about it. Now that’s it’s out I was wanting to know if PSA tv content is now on coach ice? And how helpful coach ice will be to me growing as a coach. 250 dollars is a big investment for my coaching. Thank you!