How To License Your Music
Kenneth Pantig
Music is a big part of civilization. Centuries had passed but music survived and even
grew to greater heights every single decade. As a matter of fact, the demand of music has been
rising very steadily in the past 10 years and it will continue that way in the foreseeable
future. It comes along with the big amount of revenue the music industry is currently getting
year after year.
v is an unstoppable force as people always look up for the next great artist around the
corner, thus continuing the cycle and the relevance of music. The demand of music content is
at an all time high. The global music revenue since the turn of the century has been steady.
The currency is measured in billions.
As the technology grew, music got more technical, complex and in demand. Others take
credit for using music they don't own. Nowadays, independent musicians are well aware of protecting
their work for legal purposes. Through music licensing, you can be ensured of your asset/work
being protected legally.
What is music licensing? Music licensing is the licensed used for copyrighted music.
This allows the owner of the music to maintain the copyright of their original work. It also
ensures the owner of the musical work to be compensated if their music is being used by others.
The music licensing companies has limited rights to use the work without separate agreements.
In music licensing, you could get your work licensed in the form of music, composition and songwriting.
During the music licensing process, there are terms that would be discussed by the groups
involved. If you are an independent musician, you would be the licensor. You are the one
responsible of the music created, thus you are the copyright owner of the licensed work.
A licensee would be the music licensing company as they would be the one who will
distribute your work to other industries. They will also collect the royalty fees as distribute
them back to you if your music is included in live performances, TV shows, ads, campaigns, video games, etc.
There are also two kinds of contracts in music licensing, namely exclusive contract and
non-exclusive contract. Exclusive contract means having your work licensed exclusively to a
single music licensing company. Only a single company has the authority to distribute and market
your work. If you signed an exclusive contract to your song or album, you cannot use the same
music contents and get it signed by other music licensing companies. The agreement is exclusive
and confidential to the licensor and the licensee.
Non-exclusive contract allows a second party to distribute your work and it doesn't prohibit
the licensor to sell their music to other music licensing companies or licensees. An independent
musician can sign a non-exclusive contract to multiple companies using the same music content.
Non-exclusive contracts are generally used to prevent an individual from being locked into
a restrictive contract before their work gains popularity. This type of contract is designed
to protect music artists from being taken advantage of in the early stages of their respective
careers while on the process of getting their music out to larger audiences.
There are also cases which involves direct payment for used music content. This is called
Sync Fees. Sync fee is a license granted by a holder of a copyrighted music to allow a
licensee to synchronize music with visual media such as ads, films, TV shows, movie trailers,
video games, etc. For example, a video producer is in dire need of music content for a certain
project and is in a limited time of finding one.
In these cases, the artist and the music licensing company will be contacted directly
for the possible use of the original work and negotiate the upfront payment involved. Sync
fees can range from a few dollars to a couple of hundred dollars or up to thousands. The payment
usually depends on how big and established a company is. If it is a well known company, there
is a probability that the sync fee will spike up in value.
We need to understand that businesses nowadays are paying premium for music at an all
time high. The influx and revenue generated on different industries are worth billions of dollars
and the music artists who got their music licensed will get a big share of that money. The
content of music is very important. Every single company need visual and audio content. You
can't do ads, shows and movies without having any music content.
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