Guidance

If you are putting on a public performance of music you may have to pay royalty fees. It is important that you understand what you obligations are and that you are paying any fees where necessary.

This guidance describes the current situation with regard to Gift Aid and the voluntary music sector. Please note that Gift Aid is available to UK recognised charities, regardless of whether or not they are also registered charities.

This guidance summarises the changes in relation to child safeguarding legislation made in 2012 in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

This handbook will help you manage your charity and answers the most common questions about your responsibility as a committee member (trustee) of a charity.

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) is the latest in a line of state aid tax reliefs for the creative industries. OTR incentivises the production of orchestral concerts – and amateur orchestras are specifically referenced in the legislation.

We have extensively researched OTR and believe that it has the potential to be hugely beneficial to instrumental amateur music groups across the UK:

The prospect of joining a music group committee for the first time can be daunting, so we've put together some resources to help you feel more confident about your role. Or even if you're well settled on a committee, it's always helpful to have guidance to refer to along the way. 

You'll need to have your website login handy to view most of these resources so if you don't have one, please get in touch with us.

These days, in most cases all it takes is a quick swipe of plastic to pay for something. With people increasingly expecting to pay by card, it can be extremely worthwhile for a leisure-time music group to take card payments. 

Whether payments are being made for member subscriptions, on the door ticket sales, donations or for merchandise such as CDs, a card reader and Point of Sale (POS) system can be very handy.

There’s a wonderful variety of musical genres being played and sung in towns, cities and neighbourhoods across the UK, so we decided to create introductory guides to some of them. Pick a genre and dive in to find out more and how you can get involved. Or if you would like to submit an introduction to your favourite kind of music, please email us

This guidance covers licensing and permissions with respect to playing and recording music in copyright.

When your group decides to perform a piece of music there will be copyright laws, permissions and licenses to be aware of. Part 1 of our guidance gives an introduction to music copyright.

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