Copyright law is not an Olympic sport, but athletes are having to compete in it anyway.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshore, in for David Brancaccio.

Twice now in this winter Olympics, figure skaters have had to rethink their routines at the last minute because of copyright law.

The music they wanted to skate to and have been practicing skating. at the last minute because of copyright law.

The music they wanted to skate to and have been practicing skating to is copyrighted and the athletes were told could not be used.

One of those skaters has since secured the rights.

Marketplaces Carla Hevere looked into the complicated world of sports and music.

For years, figure skaters tended to complicated world of sports and music.

For years, figure skaters tended to use a lot of classical music, but in 2014, the rules loosened. And skaters started picking some hits. Here's Nathan Chen skating to a remix

of Benny and the Jets at the 2022 games. The thing is, in order to use music outside of just

listening to it for personal pleasure or in the background in a in a public venue, you need

permission from the artists and all of the writers to use that music. That's Chantal Epp, CEO of

Click and Clear, which helps athletes navigate this whole

permission process.

Now, on average, a hit song can have nine different writers plus one record label.

So at least 10 potential people to negotiate with.

Epp's company has a library of pre-clearared music, including some of the Minion songs.

Other songs are negotiated case-by-case, including other Minion songs.

Ben and Plum is a former licensing executive now at the University of the Pacific.

Lord, it's just too much for an athlete to handle on their own.

In many cases, Plum says it might just come down to the

rate. It could be as low as in the hundreds or it could be as high as thousands or hundreds of

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