There are 6 Types of Music Licenses
How they work:
When a musician creates an original work and registers the copyright for that work, that song becomes their intellectual property. By law, that property cannot be used by anyone other than the copyright owner without written consent from the owner. As a way to earn income from their work, artists and copyright owners can issue licenses that allow others to legally use their work in their projects. These licenses will include the usage and term rights, which determines how the song will be used.
Here are the six major forms of music licenses, along with some examples of how they can be used:
Synchronization License (Sync License) Musicbed’s platform is built completely on representing musicians and composers for sync licensing. This method of licensing refers to music that is going to be paired (or synced) with some form of visual media. It has a broad range of uses, including commercials, studio films, streaming advertisements, personal films, internal communications, and more.
Mechanical License A mechanical license is needed for any physical reproduction of an artist’s work. Most commonly, this refers to the manufacturing of CDs or distribution of music in any tangible form. Artists, aka copyright holders, will have agreements with record labels, distributors, and publishers on the mechanical terms of their music, and are generally paid per-copy.
A mechanical license is also needed if you are planning on recording a cover song, even if only a portion of the original song is used. This also includes adding your own lyrics, re-mixing, or changing anything about the original recording that affects the overall integrity of the artists' composition. You can obtain a mechanical license for most songs by searching the Harry Fox Agency database or contacting the artist directly.
Master License Master licenses are a bit more complex than others, in that they are similar to sync licenses but not quite as broad-ranging. A master right is held by the person who owns the recording of a song. This is usually either the artist themselves or the record label they are signed to. The master license gives the user permission to use a pre-recorded version of a song in a visual or audio project, but does not allow a user to re-record a song for a project (i.e. to cover or edit a song). Generally a master license is issued in conjunction with a sync license.
Public Performance License This license is perhaps the most common form of music license issued today. While ‘performance’ may be a limiting term, it applies generally to any broadcast of an artist’s work in a public space. This includes businesses who play music in their store, jukeboxes, TV’s in bars, or any other form of public performance — all the way up to concerts. Performing rights organizations (PROs) such as BMI, SESAC, and ASCAP generally manage public performance licenses and issue music royalties to artists on a per-use basis.
Print Rights License This license refers to the physical copy of the sheet music that an artist has created. It’s needed when someone prints a sheet music compilation, or any time the sheet music of copyrighted work is reproduced.
Theatrical License Also a very specific form of written permission, theatrical licenses are very common in the theater industry. The license is required any time a copyrighted work is performed on-stage in front of an audience.