The responsibility of securing permission, as well as paying any permission fees, belongs to the Head Director, not the arranger. The procedure is fairly simple; however, be aware that the time required to complete the process can take as long as two months.
It is recommended that the Head Director follow these four simple steps:
1) To find the name of the Publisher, which is normally the legal Copyright Holder, do a song title or composer search through ASCAP or BMI. Be aware that neither of these entities will hold any Copyright Ownership to the material in which you are researching, so please do not seek permission to arrange from either of them. However, they are both excellent resources in finding out the name of the actual Copyright Holder.
2) Contact the Publisher by phone and ask for the department or person who grants permission to arrange. This person will provide you with information on where to send the Permission to Arrange Form . On rare occasion, the Publisher will not be the Copyright Holder, but if that is the case, they will certainly be able to provide you with whom to contact concerning Copyright Ownership. After the information is collected, fill out the form and mail or fax it to the Copyright Holder.
3) A written reply will usually be delivered within two months. It will either state that permission to arrange HAS been granted, which will require you to mail them the necessary permission to arrange fee; or the response will state that permission WILL NOT be granted. In the event that you have to send the form containing their official signature back to them with the fee payment, make sure to make copy for your files before returning it to them. Otherwise, you will not have any proof of their signature! Also, if the Copyright Holder has not responded within two months, do not assume anything. Just contact them to find out the status of the request.
4) Once permission to arrange has been secured, and the permission fee has been paid, a copy of the officially signed form should be sent to the arranger. At that point, the arranger will be legally allowed to write the music.