Securing a Licence Secures Success

The COPYRIGHT ACT OF JAMAICA 1993/1999 assures authors and owners of original musical, dramatic, or artistic works certain exclusive rights over the use of their creations. This means that those who desire to use the work must seek permission or obtain a ‘licence’ from the copyright owner, who is entitled to receive a royalty payment.

Anyone who copies, distributes, broadcasts, or adapts musical works requires a licence. This licence is necessary for public performances, including concerts, and for playing music in public places such as restaurants, bars, hotels, and businesses. Radio and television stations, including satellite and cable operators, must also be licensed to broadcast music into private homes. Additionally, establishments that use these services to provide entertainment for their patrons, the general public, or staff must obtain a licence to do so.

A JACAP Licence gives you the freedom to entertain your customers, guests, and employees using the world’s largest musical repertoire. Whether your music is live, broadcasted, transmitted, or played via CDs and videos, your JACAP licence covers all these performances. By obtaining this licence, you save time, expenses, and the hassle of reaching out to thousands of copyright owners individually. JACAP simplifies the process and ensures you can enjoy music legally.

JACAP applies various licence fees based on different uses of music. You can find detailed information about these fees in the JACAP tariff structure provided on our website. It’s important for music users to know that reaching out to JACAP early could lead to reduced charges when making arrangements for early compliance.

The money collected by JACAP from various licence fees goes to our members, both local and international. After the deduction of operational expenses, we distribute all the fees collected as royalties, ensuring that the rightful copyright owners receive fair compensation for their creative works.

JACAP exists to simplify and streamline the process of using music for every user. Negotiating individual licences with countless copyright owners would be extremely costly, time-consuming, and nearly impossible. However, by obtaining a license from JACAP, users gain the freedom to access and use a wide range of music within JACAP’s repertoire immediately and legally. 

Yes, it is generally illegal to copy and distribute music without proper authorization, even if you are not doing it for monetary gain. Whether or not you are making money from the activity may influence the severity of penalties imposed by the courts, but it does not change the fact that unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted music is a violation of copyright law.

No, it does not matter how music is performed. Whether the music is performed live, broadcasted through radio or television, played using any electro-mechanical or digital device, presented through video, or used in karaoke, the requirement for a JACAP licence remains the same. The necessity for a licence is not affected by factors such as whether an admission fee is charged or whether the performers receive payment. In all these instances, a JACAP licence is necessary to ensure that the use of music is legitimate.

Yes, when a performer is paid to perform at an event, such payment is for their service as a performing artiste, not for the public performance of the musical works. Regardless of whether the artiste wrote the music or not, a JACAP licence is still necessary for the public performance of the musical works. The licence fees paid to JACAP are distinct from the fees paid to the performer

If you do not have a JACAP licence your event is not legally authorized to use music in Jamaica. In such cases, JACAP has the right to take appropriate actions to ensure compliance with copyright laws. Failure to obtain a licence for the use of music in public, or in any commercial environment, may result in legal action for copyright infringement and can result in injunctions, fines or imprisonment.

Purchasing the CD or downloading the music from a legal site grants you the right to use it for personal enjoyment, such as playing it for yourself, family, and friends. However, the moment you play the music in a place open to the public or in a commercial setting, you are engaging in public use of the music, which requires a separate JACAP licence.