Is performance of a copyrighted written music copyright infringement?
<p>Suppose If play some piece from sheet music that contains Copyright information such as:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Information:</strong> Copyright 2006 ABC Music Co. ... Reproduced by permission of DEF Music. All rights Reserved.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>or such as:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>This piece is published under license from XYZ.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I understand that I am not sharing the written music but playing it on my instrument. Is uploading of it on any sites like Youtube or SoundCloud wrong?</p>

<p>I read <a href="https://soundcloud.com/pages/copyright#further-resources" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> and the part under "For other sounds, including field recordings...", I can say that it is spontaneous (played live) of me and I myself made it and no one else is in it. But "Does the recording contain any music or excerpts from other copyright works?(e.g. Movie Dialogue)" is confusing.</p>

<p>I saw <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/4070/transcribing-music-and-the-legality-of-using-musical-transcription">this question</a> which I think says that it is wrong and <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/4211/performing-music-in-public">this</a> which says I should get a license. Of course these are my interpretations.</p>

<p>A performance of copyrighted written music is copyright infringement. One of the bundle of rights that comes with a copyright is the performance right.</p>

<p>You can obtain a license to cover copyrighted written music, however, on a mandatory basis for a royalty amount set by law, rather than only with the permission of the copyright owner as is the case with other copyrighted works.</p>

<p>There are exceptions to the broad general scope of the the rights associated with a copyright, such as fair use, but a performance of instrumental music is not itself, in general, fair use.</p>

copyright music