How necessary is it to buy rights for ceremony music?

I’ve never heard of anyone doing that.

That's what I thought. I've been chatting with a cello player online and gave her a sample playlist and she responded that she needed to buy the rights. I'm like, why? A wedding is generally not for profit.

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This is what sheet music is for. Has this person not performed at a wedding before so they don't know this? You don't normally have to buy the rights.

I hired a string duo to accompany the church's pianist and they performed several songs throughout the ceremony. They just purchased the sheet music if they didn't have it already.

I cancelled the request for sample playings. First, there's no price and all of the sudden, there's a price

Interesting. I play cello & I play for weddings at least once a month. I've NEVER paid for rights. I just buy the music. Maybe try finding another cellist.

Thanks for the inside information

I'm hiring ceremony musicians and that wasn't anything that came up.

That didn’t come up for the violins that we are using - we did have to pay a fee for a song that we wanted for the recessional, but that’s because they had to buy the sheet music because it wasn’t something already in their repertoire.

I think that is probably what she meant, but whatever. I closed the request with that musician.

I mean... maybe? Churches have to buy the rights to use hymnals. So super legal by the letter. Probably. But I doubt many people do.