I hate my music!

My daughter's father is a musician. You can't imagine how this simplified music choices-- her coaches pretty much trusted us to come up with great unusual music and she mostly skated to things she liked.

Ice show programs were often dogs, unfortunately-- she skated to music that I wouldn't blast at terrorists to get them to give up the hostages.

In which case you just go out and skate your heart out for the applause, because the music is setting everyone's teeth on edge.

There is no standard about who chooses music; sometimes the coach is dictatorial about it , sometimes it's the student, sometimes collaborative. It is not worth fighting over. Coaches will often recycle music-- their own or their students. At the very least, this saves an editing fee-- when I still did competitions with my students, I would charge them $50 to prepare their own music, or let them use something from my library for free. Students were not allowed to edit their own music, because they almost universally did a terrible job. Not everyone's dad is a musician, but unfortunately everyone's dad, or 13-year-old brother (not kidding), has access to Garage Band.

Even if you're using "someone else's music" remember that IJS rules change more often than the weather; your choreography will be your own. Even if you hate your music, remember that program length changes at each level, so you'll have a chance to change it within a year, two at the most.

Coaches will know things about music that you won't-- cuts that allow for proper emphasis on elements within the choreography-- a jump at a dramatic cadence, step sequence that matches the mood, etc. Points are awarded, and deducted, for this. The coach might know that judges reward certain types or even certain cuts of specific music. They will sometimes use music to cue the judges "this is a Brian Boitano-like skater." "I want you to think of Jason Brown when you see this skater." "This skater is new and unique."

To you, it's "I don't like this music." To the coach, it's all part of the drive to assemble the point total.

Coaches do not choose music to be mean, or to make your skater look bad, or to pick fights. They choose the music that they feel will show off your skater's skill in the best light.

Have you had music that you hated? How did you resolve the situation?

Whose music is it anyway?

Speaking of policies, when I was still taking kids to competition, I had very clear requirements for music.

I get to choose it.

Yes, I got arguments, but I nipped them in the bud with the ole economic hammer. If you use music from my library, no charge. If you insist on your own music, I must do the edit (okay, my musician husband must do the edit) at a charge of $35 to $50 depending on the complexity of the edit.

Everyone used our music (we have a library of several dozen, at all levels, due to the skating daughter).

Because our music was chosen by a grownup for the most part, and because of the superior editing, it was highly coveted. I know this because I would often walk into the rink and hear DD's music. I'd think, weird, I didn't think she was skating to that anymore. 

Lo and behold, it was someone else, whose coach or parent had snagged the CD and pirated it.

A reader emailed me about a similar situation, in which she worked long and hard to edit music, and discovered someone from her rink had copied it. She believes that the parents were charged an editing fee. She can prove it's hers, because she's got the original copy. She wrote asking what to do about it--talk to the Club president? the family involved? her coach? the other coach? She doesn't really care that the student is using the music, but is annoyed that she did all the work, and the coach charged the parents as though it was his.

Most rinks just have a basket of CDs on the counter; kids don't retrieve them after every practice. Some have everyone's music in MP3 files now. It's easy to pick up someone else's CD. If a CD is missing, the owner just thinks it's "lost" (of course, if your music is the one that's constantly being "lost" you start to get suspicious). But even if you religiously retrieve your music at the rink, it can be copied by the monitor right there in the booth, or uploaded to a player.  It can be picked up at any competition by anyone--it's usually just laying on a table (very few competitions make you sign for your music when you pick  it up.)

It violates professional courtesy to deliberately use a rink mate's music, let alone their edit, without their knowledge or permission, especially if both skaters are competing in the same level. Taking someone's property without their knowledge or permission (i.e. "borrowing" the CD to copy it) is theft. Period. And it's not like the injured party isn't going to notice. I still hear DD's cuts of Claire du Lune, Danse Macabre, and West Side Story, and the really distinctive blend of Take Five/A La Turk that was her Senior long,  at her old rink.

Sadly, while this is nasty and unprofessional, it isn't illegal. You cannot copyright, i.e. "own" an edit of someone else's music. (This came up at the Ice Rink of the Damned, when someone used their copy of the ice show music and the music guy went ballistic because "he owns that edit." Sorry, no. The royalty, if it's still under copyright, goes to the composer no matter what the edit is, via the rink's blanket license with ASCAP and BMI). And if it's public domain? Nobody "owns" it. To be upright, they should have asked the rink's permission. If the rink has a policy about not using show music for personal use, it should be in writing.)

As for competitive skating, well, if you're on Twitter, I'm the originator of the #bannedforeverlist. The top five offenders? Requiem for a Dream, Tosca, Carmen, and anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber but especially Les Miz and Phantom.

The stupid thing is that all those people who are using DD's music? I would gladly have just given it to them if they'd asked.

How do you choose your music? Does your coach have veto power? Do you have a personal #bannedforeverlist?