Higher Education Printed Music Licence
Following successful negotiations with Universities UK, the HEPML was launched as a full licence from August 2023. The Higher Education Printed Music Licence (HEPML), allows staff and students to copy and arrange sheet music as a part of higher education courses.
The licence was introduced to facilitate access to printed music in higher education and to ensure that music publishers are fairly remunerated for the copies made. Staff and students can reproduce and arrange printed music under the terms and conditions of the licence without breaching copyright. Full terms and conditions of the licence are here: HEPML Licence.
The licence costs £15 per full time equivalent (FTE) until 31 July 2024 when it will increase to £15.82 and applies to students studying on a course or module offered by the Higher Education Institution (HEI) that includes a music element and which, together with other courses or modules, comprises a programme of study leading to a degree qualification.
An original of the printed music copied must be owned or subscribed to by the HEI and sufficient copies can be made for the number of students that are participating on the Music Course. A whole work can be copied and arrangements can be made solely for teaching purposes and can be made in either paper or digital form. A glossary of terms used within the licence is here: Glossary of terms
PMLL has also produced User Guidelines which are an easy to use guide that has general information about the licence for both staff and students. There is also a general introduction to copyright here: What is Copyright with an overview of copyright relating to sheet music.
A list of the publishers that have signed up to the licence so far is available. This will be updated as new members mandate their rights for this licence. There is also a list where publishers will be added if they exclude some or all of their works from this licence.
The Higher Education Printed Music Licence (HEPML) can be acquired from the PMLL Portal.
To submit data For the Higher Education Licence please use the forms below