Q&A: Abigail D’Amore

HF: What is your background in music education, and what do you currently do?

AD: I'm an independent music education consultant and I work across the sector in several different roles; my very first job was actually assistant editor at Music Teacher magazine! Over the last few years, I've been working with Printed Music Licensing Ltd (PMLL), initially as an advisor on their board. Now my company has been awarded the contract to deliver the data collection strategy for PMLL – this strategy has now become Every Copy Counts. There's a real disconnect between music education in schools and the music publishing industry, and I had some ideas in this campaign about how we might be able to collaborate better and make the system better for everybody.

HF: What is a Schools Printed Music Licence?

AD: Every state school in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland automatically has a Schools Printed Music Licence (SPML), which is funded by the Department for Education in their respective countries and schools. In Wales and independent schools, there isn't a blanket agreement, so schools have to purchase licences individually. It's a really good thing, because it means that schools can access repertoire for their students; they can photocopy, download music, make arrangements of printed music, and so much more.

HF: What are the current problems with the licence?

AD: Firstly, some schools don't know that they've got this at all, because it's just an automatically covered licence – it's not something that they've had to apply for, so they don't know they have it. Schools are not completely clear on what it allows them to do, and teachers may not know that they're meant to be reporting on what they are doing in terms of copying and arranging music. So, the consequences of this are that over time, fewer than two per cent of schools have been reporting the music they've been copying and arranging.

HF: What does this mean for the creators of the music?

AD: By schools not sharing what they're doing through lack of awareness, there's a potential inequity and unfairness for the creators. Publishers want to distribute the licence fees to the creators of the music – composers or songwriters – but they're currently not able to do that based on actual data from education departments. Our aim with Every Copy Counts is to rectify both issues: we want to compensate musicians with royalties and help schools use their licence fully.

HF: How can teachers help?

AD: We're asking teachers to go to our website, which is everycopycounts.co.uk, and to follow the link. There's lots of information on there about what this campaign is, as well as clarification about the licence. PMLL has created a simple online portal for logging data, and we're asking that every school creates an account on this portal and starts sharing some data when they're ready. This can be done every week, every month, or even once a year (which is the legal requirement) – an administrator or teacher can do it at a time that's convenient to them.

HF: What can teachers gain by getting involved in the campaign?

AD: We know that teachers are pressed for time, and we know that music teachers are probably the busiest out of all subject teachers because of all the extracurricular activities. So, we've created and are continuing to create some fantastic resources for teachers, as a thank you. As soon as you start logging data it will unlock a whole resources section, including guides for teachers and students, written by innovative practitioners. We also deliver a webinar series, which is predominantly younger artists and composers sharing their stories by way of inspiration.

Every Copy Counts also runs regular drop-in sessions for teachers. Find out more at www.everycopycounts.co.uk