The Legal Future of Music in Yoga

The owner of the studio I work for sent me an interesting email this morning. It was regarding the future of playing music in yoga classes and how it may eventually cost us money. I was shocked at first, but then thinking of all the other legal issues that have been invading the sanctity of yoga, why be surprised at one more.

Music has always moved me. I still remember the music from the first yoga class I took. The songs were perfectly timed with the pace of the class. When I was working hard the music was fast paced and helped me power through. When it was time to relax it was slow and invited me to go deeper into my Savasana. Music allows students to go deeper into their practice. I love using it in my own class and I'm saddened by the thought of not being able to use it because I can't afford to pay for a license.

Some yoga purist think that music shouldn't even be a part of yoga. That it's distracting. You can't fully connect to the breath and the body if your mind is distracted by a song. When I first started yoga I couldn't keep my mind focused on my breath and body to save my life. But I could focus on the music. Over time my attention was calmed by the music and I could move on to watching my breath and listening to my body. Music was my meditation training wheels. Without it, I probably wouldn't have fallen in love with yoga, because to my anxious mind, quiet was scary.

A group called ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is targeting yoga studios as a source of licensing revenues. Letters have been sent out requiring these studios, who are playing music from artist connected to ASCAP, to purchase a license for the music they're playing. ASCAP"s mission is as follows: "We protect the rights of ASCAP members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. Our licenses encompass all who want to perform copyrighted music publicly." According this this, a yoga class is a "non-dramitic public performance".

I support the right to be protected. Music has changed a lot over the years and artists are losing money. However, the music I play in my class I bought. I paid for it on iTunes. I paid the artist. This is true for most yoga studios. Teachers for the most part put together their own playlists on their smart phone and bring it to class to attach to the sound system. It isn't even part of the yoga studio. It seems to me like they're wanting me to pay them many times over as you have to pay for a new license each year.

There is also the issue of class size. I've had classes as small as three people and as big as twenty. Some of the larger studios can have up to 70 plus people in them. Where is the cut off for this license? Should I have to pay the same as the bigger studios even though I'm not playing the music to as many people? 

The music I play in my class is, for the most part, background noise. People aren't coming to specifically listen to it. It isn't some radio station or Pandora (which is covered by a blanketed license, as is Spotify, so is probably ok to use), but songs I paid for. I'm not promoting music, I'm practicing and teaching yoga. The point of this license is to have studios pay who will be playing an artist's music for a large crowd. A yoga class isn't a large crowd nor is it a performance. According to ASCAP's definition of non-dramtic performance, yoga doesn't even seem to fit the bill. But with all law, it is open to interpretation and that is what's scary for the future of music in yoga.

This makes me think of royalty rights that a radio station has to pay or a commercial gym that has the music playing over their speakers non stop. Seems like they're over reaching trying to get into the pockets of yoga studios (most of whom don't have the extra money to spare). Sure there are some big yoga studios out there that probably don't have the teacher streaming the music off of their playlist and should pay the license, but to categorize them all into one group and make them pay, seems harsh.

This is still in the early stages, but who knows what will come. Yoga is becoming more of a business than a practice. Whoever thought that you could patent the floor plan for a live yoga class via video. Yup, it's been done. Or Bikram trying to copyright a sequence of yoga postures. This is all getting so complicated. Whatever happened to just doing yoga? The more popular yoga gets the more we lose touch with its core principals.

Gary Kissiah wrote an informative article on this topic here. Check it out. If you're a teacher you should give it a read. Who knows what the future of music in our classes will look like. For now I will enjoy playing the music I paid for to my students. I'll savor yoga for its purity, and try to let go of the disgust I feel at the people who are turning this tradition into a business deal.