Help the choir

[Ken]

I belong to a community choir.

In order to assist the various parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass etc) I have suggested that the pianist who accompanies the choir for rehearsals may be able to record the individual parts and then upload them onto the Choir website. This way the choir members could hear the tune appropriate to their part and learn it between rehearsals. Would this result in an infringement of copyright? If so, is it possible to avoid the infringement by creating a members only area on the site so that the music is effectively for private listening only?

[CopyrightAid]

Copyright law does allow uses that are termed 'fair dealing' and this does cover 'private study' which this seems to qualify as, but... I would not upload them to any publicly accessible part of the site as I believe that would constitute 'issue of copies to the public'; an infringement under the 1988 CD&P Act.

In terms of the private area of the site - that seems like quite a good idea. I cannot imagine it would attract complaint as it is clear that the intention is simply to make the copies available for private study (particularly given that the recording will be just one part).
Just an aside, surely a simpler solution is just to give the members their recordings when they next turn up for rehearsal?

Of course the public performance of a piece of music is itself a restricted act, but I'd imagine that the venue has a PRS licence so you should be OK on that one too.