The United States Equestrian Federation, Inc. (the USEF) is dedicated to promoting excellence in equestrian sport. For some disciplines—like dressage and para dressage freestyles, and vaulting—music plays an important role. In the U.S. and worldwide, music is protected by copyright laws that dictate whether, when, and how music can be incorporated and utilized in choreography, practice, and competition. When hosting a competition or event in which the athletes use music, it is important to confirm with the athletes and their teams that the appropriate rights and licenses are in place. Copyright regulations and music licensing requirements are strictly enforced, and failure to comply may expose athletes, organizers, and the USEF to civil penalties and damages.

Together with other amateur sport organizations, the USEF recognizes the complex nature of obtaining rights to utilize music for equestrian performances, and so it has taken steps to better equip its members—including both athletes and organizers—with important information about how to avoid violating copyright laws. To further assist in compliance, the USEF has entered into some limited licensing agreements with performance rights organizations and other licensing services for the benefit of its members. This document summarizes the USEF’s current licensing coverage, identifies important gaps and limitations, and provides practical guidance for organizers.

All of the guidance herein applies only to performances that involve the use of music. Below is an overview of the relevant licenses.

The manipulation, mash-up, or remixing of one or more songs for use in choreography requires a derivative license. While this has always been the case, the increased visibility of amateur sports has shone a spotlight on an issue that was previously often overlooked.

• The USEF has engaged the services of a vendor called ClicknClear that offers athletes a portal through which they can request, and pay for, derivative rights to a particular song or songs.
• USEF members can access that portal www.clicknclear.com
• Athletes are responsible for paying for, and securing confirmation of, a derivative license in order to use that music in choreography at any USEF-licensed event or competition. Once a license has been obtained via ClicknClear, it will be recorded in the License Verification System (LVS) and serves as proof of compliance.
• If an athlete cannot obtain, or prefers not to pay for, a derivative license through ClicknClear, they can instead use a song or portions of a song or songs without manipulating them (this means no speeding songs up, or slowing them down, mashing them up, remixing them, looping the chorus, etc.).
• If a song is not listed in the LSV, Organizers should obtain written confirmation from participating athletes that they are aware of, and in compliance with, this license requirement, and that the song(s) that they plan to perform to have either been cleared or have not been manipulated (such that they don’t require clearance).

Playing a song at a venue during a competition or performance requires a public performance license.

• On behalf of its members and organizers, the USEF has secured blanket licenses with the two biggest performance rights organizations, ASCAP and BMI.
• In order for the songs played during a USEF-licensed competition or performance to be fully covered by these licenses, the song(s) you play at the venue must be fully owned by ASCAP, BMI, or a combination of the two.
• The fastest way for an athlete to ensure that the song(s) they’d like to play meet this requirement is to look them up on Songview.
• If they do not find their song(s) in the Songview database, the rights to that song(s) have either not been secured, or have explicitly been withheld.
• Organizers are urged to obtain written confirmation from participating athletes that they are aware of, and in compliance with, the requirement that the songs they will play are 100% owned on Songview.
• Organizers may wish to seek written confirmation from athletes that their desired music has been cleared.

If an athlete is performing to a song or song(s) for which they have obtained a ClicknClear license, they may use a streaming service to play the song at a USEF-licensed event. Otherwise, these public performance licenses only cover songs played via hardware. They do not cover songs streamed from a digital platform like Spotify. This means that unless an athlete has a ClicknClear license, playing music from a CD or an MP3 saved to a thumb drive or hard drive is ok; a playlist streamed from Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon Music is not.

Livestreaming requires as a synchronization (“sync”) license. These licenses cannot be readily obtained in blanket form, and so individual athletes or organizers must negotiate these on a case-by-case basis. USEF is not able to facilitate these negotiations on behalf of its members.

• If you want to livestream a performance, the athlete or the organizer must first obtain a sync license. USEF’s existing licenses do not cover this use.
• If the athlete or organizer do not have a sync license for each of the song(s) in the performance, you cannot livestream it.
• A ClicknClear license is NOT a sync license, and does not cover livestreaming.

This kind of use also requires an individually-negotiated sync license. USEF’s existing licenses do not cover this use.

• If the athlete or organizer does not have a sync license for each of the song(s) in the performance, you cannot post recordings of performances to platforms like YouTube or Instagram.
• An athlete or organizer who is unable to obtain, or prefers not to pay for, a sync license—but still wishes to post to social media—can alternatively replace the music in the recording with royalty-free music or by stripping the music out altogether and posting the performance without music. Please note that the IOC Guidelines (which apply to Games, i.e., Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, PanAm Games) prohibit the use of AI-generated music.

No, the recording, sale and distribution of USEF-licensed events that feature music is strictly prohibited. Events that do not feature music, or from which the music has been stripped out or replaced with royalty-free music, are exempt from this prohibition.

• Unless a song is listed in the LSV, obtain written confirmation from participating athletes that they are aware of and in compliance with the derivative license required to manipulate the song(s) they will perform at the competition, or that they did not manipulate the song(s) they will use.
• Obtain written confirmation from participating athletes that they are aware of, and in compliance with, the requirement that the songs they will play are 100% owned by either ASCAP, BMI, or a combination of the two.
• Unless a song is listed in the LSV, use a CD or thumb drive to play my music through hardware (no streaming) at the event.
• Obtain a sync license (or confirm the athlete has obtained one) for each song used, or do not livestream.
• Obtain a sync license for each song used (or confirm the athlete has), or replace or strip the music, before posting any performances to social media platforms.

Questions or concerns regarding the use of music at USEF-licensed events, programs, and activities may be directed to [email protected].