I’ve been doing a little research on the fair use of copyrighted music at live events today. It is pretty clear that if you are going to be playing music, you need to have permission and/or licensing from the copyright holders. There seems to be a special provision in the copyright law for music used not only used for educational purposes, but within an educational setting. The way that I understand it is as follows:
You may use up to 10 percent of a work but you may not exceed 30 seconds of the music or lyrics from an individual musical work.
Seems fair to me. That being said, I’m going to share some of my 7 second audio stingers that I use with countdown timers on our audience response system.
Download: Doogie Howser, MD Theme Song
Download: Dire Straits – Sultans of Swing
Download: Pat Benatar – Hit Me With Your Best Shot
*** I am not versed in copyright law. My research is based solely on Google searches. Take my interpretation of the law with a grain of salt. Enjoy the audio clips. Use them as you deem appropriate.