Copyright and permitted score use
Understand how purchased scores and provided audio may be used for practice, study, and performance through detailed examples.
Rights granted by a purchase
When you purchase a score, you receive a personal, non-exclusive license to use the content within the scope shown on the product page and checkout screen. Copyright itself, public performance rights, reproduction and distribution rights, transmission rights, and the right to create derivative works are not transferred to you.
Full scores, parts, editable files, and audio may each have different rights and delivery scopes. This page provides general guidance. Always check the copyright notice and terms for the specific product, and give priority to any separate agreement or permission from a rightsholder.
Practice and Learning
A standard score purchase is intended primarily for the purchaser's own practice and study. This includes viewing it on the purchaser's device and referring to it during personal practice or a lesson in which the purchaser participates.
- Personal practice:The purchaser views and plays from the score at home or in a practice room
- Private lessons:The purchaser receives instruction while viewing their own score during a lesson
- Analysis and Learning:Adding harmony, structure, or technique notes for personal study
- Group features:Using content only within a group and membership scope explicitly granted by the service
Copying a file purchased by one person for all teachers, students, or ensemble members, or placing it in a shared repository for an academy, school, or club, falls outside personal use. When several people need the content, confirm each person's entitlement or an explicitly permitted group scope.
Performances and public use
A score purchase does not normally include permission to perform it publicly. Before a public performance, whether paid or free, separately confirm the required licenses and fees with the rightsholder of the underlying work or arrangement, the relevant collective management organization, or another authorized party.
- Paid recitals or concerts, festivals, and corporate or institutional events
- Performances open to audiences such as free recitals, school performances, and church or local events
- Performing in a competition or audition, and supplying a score to the organizer
- Recording or filming a live performance, livestreaming it, or providing an on-demand replay
- Posting performance video on YouTube, social media, or a website, or using it in promotional material
Even if a venue or organizer has a blanket license, confirm separately whether it covers the arrangement, copying the score, recording, and transmission. A private rehearsal and disclosure to an audience or online viewers may require different rights.
Audio playback and use
Audio provided by the service, including previews, part audio, and guide audio, is intended for personal listening and practice reference. Full-length playback after sign-in does not transfer ownership of the audio file or grant rights to reproduce, perform, broadcast, or transmit it. Audio access is also separate from score purchase rights.
- Typical examples include:Playback to check tempo, pitch, and part progress during personal practice
- Examples requiring separate verification:Background music in the performance hall, stage accompaniment, and public playback in classes and event venues
- Examples requiring separate verification:Combining audio sources with videos, advertisements, games, broadcasts, and podcasts, or streaming live
- Prohibited example:Extract, record, or copy audio and share as files or re-upload to other services
Even when you record your own performance, rights in the underlying work and arrangement may still apply. If you use audio provided by the service, rights in that sound recording must also be checked. Ask what permissions are needed before public distribution or monetization.
No sharing or resale
The following acts are not permitted without separate explicit permission.
- Reselling, renting, or exchanging PDFs, editable files such as MSCZ, audio, captured images, or printouts
- Delivering to third parties via messenger, email, community, shared drive, shared tablet, or file-sharing service
- Selling or distributing as purchase benefits in bundles of other products, lectures, textbooks, or sheet music
- Sharing download links, accounts, group invitations, or access passwords with people outside the permitted scope
- Removing, obscuring, or circumventing copyright notices, buyer identifiers, QR codes, copy identifiers, or other technical protection measures
- Cutting out only parts or changing the format to make the original difficult to recognize, then redistributing it
Quick guide by situation
| Situation | General judgment | Check details |
|---|---|---|
| Using the score and guide audio for individual instrumental practice | Personal practice use | The content included in the purchased product |
| Viewing the purchaser's own score during a private lesson | Personal study use | Do not distribute files to teachers or other students |
| Sending part PDFs to all ensemble members | Not covered by an individual purchase | Member-specific permissions or explicit group permissions |
| Performing at a free school recital | Performance rights require separate clearance | Free performances also require confirmation of original song, arrangement, and reproduction permission |
| Filming paid performances and posting them online | Multiple rights require separate clearance | Scope of performance, recording, transmission, and arrangement rights |
| Using preview audio as background music in a video | Outside the standard license | Permission from the rights holder of audio, original songs, performances, and recordings |
| Reselling a used score as a digital file | Prohibited | Resale or transfer of digital files and printouts is prohibited |
Requesting separate permission
If you plan a performance, educational or organizational use, video posting, broadcast or stream, use of provided audio, arrangement change, or large-scale use, clear the required rights before proceeding. To help us assess your case, include the event and work names, score used, date and venue, whether admission is paid or free, expected audience, recording, streaming, and posting plans, and the number of users.
Contact us with your planned use, and we will explain what we can verify. If the relevant licensing party is the original copyright holder, arranger, collective management organization, sound recording producer, or another rightsholder, you may also need that party's separate approval.
The service's basic contract terms are available in theTerms of Service.