For your programme, you may want to commission a composer to write original music, and then engage musicians to record it.

You may want to hire some musicians and get them to record some piece of music that already exists.

Or you may want to use an existing recording, either "production music" (also known as "library music") or commercial disc.

Or your programme may require some hybrid of these three. Whichever it is, you will be dealing in copyright and performersâ rights. It is important to get it right. This may mean dealing with collecting societies.

Composers performance right (ie the right to permit music in copyright to be performed in public or broadcast) is almost invariably controlled on behalf of the composer by the Performing Rights Society (PRS) in the UK, or its equivalent in another country. The PRS issues licences to users of copyright music, analyses the returns that they send in, and distributes the resultant income to its composer members.

It is extremely unlikely, however, that you will need to apply for a PRS licence, whether you are an independent producer commissioned by a broadcaster or a producer making an in-house programme for one. This is because the end-users of your programme, whether they be terrestrial broadcasters, cable companies,