After weeks of rummaging through audio libraries, playlists, and music collections, you’ve finally found it: the perfect music and sound design. The song gives your trailer soul and the FX hits just right. Now, you have to make it yours — legally yours —with usage licenses. For a lot of creatives, the process can feel laborious and overwhelming. Here at Sencit, we navigate this daily and can help minimize the frustration while locking in the cue of your dreams in no time.
Depending on the song or cue you want to use, your first step is to find out who owns the rights and if they are available. There are two sets of rights you need to be concerned with: master recording and publishing rights.
Want to know the difference between a cue and a song? Read our article here. Need a different type of music license? Check out our article detailing the different license types.
Researching Master Use and Synchronization Licenses
There are a number of ways to determine who owns the master recording and publishing rights. Keep in mind the owner of the master recording may be a different party altogether than the owners of the underlying publishing rights. If the music or sound design piece is represented for licensing by a music licensing company, such as Sencit, the process will be relatively straightforward.
MASTER RECORDING: Typically, the master recording is owned by a record label. If the song or the artist is well known, you should be able to locate the rights owner with a quick Google search. Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music can also be great resources to determine master recording ownership. For lesser-known recordings, the artist may own the rights, which means you will have to contact them directly.
PUBLISHING: Publishing rights reside with the writer(s) who composed the music (remember the songwriter is not always the same as the artist who performs the song). In the United States, the best resources to find the publisher(s) of a song are Performance Rights Societies who administer and control performance licenses on behalf of publishers, such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. While a performance license is different from a synchronization license, these societies are the best databases for researching publisher information. Many songs have more than one writer or composer, and thus you may need to go through multiple publishing companies.or example one publisher could be represented by ASCAP and the other by BMI. ASCAP and BMI have streamlined this process by combining their searchable databases, while SESAC publishers can only be located through their respective databases.
If your song contains a sample of another song (common in hip-hop or electronic music) you will have to get master use and synchronization licenses for the song itself, as well as the song from which the sample was taken. Your song’s record label should have this information, as they will have obtained the necessary licenses upon releasing the material. If you find your song on a mixtape or Soundcloud account, you will need to reach out to the party that released the mixtape or the owner of the Soundcloud account to determine who controls rights to the sample and if proper authorization has been given. If these steps prove too difficult or time consuming you may want to consider simply finding a new piece of music that’s easier to clear.
Steps to License Music or Sound Design
After you've located the copyright owners and their contact info, it’s time to get your deal-points together. You’ll want to do this before reaching out to the copyright owners. The main pieces of information you need are:
1. The name and description of your project, as well as your company information, or the name of the company who will be licensing the music.
2. The category of media that is being created film trailer, commercial, video game, television show).
3. The name of the song(s) or cue(s).
4. The name of the artist and/or composer(s) - make sure to specify whether you intend to use the instrumental or full version with vocals.
5. Nature of use - is the music playing in the background behind dialogue or featured on its own?
6. Media rights - where will your project air or broadcast? Some common options include television, theaters, online, and social media. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with all the possible outlets. You may even want to cover all bases and request all media rights so that you don’t run afoul of the fine print; (note that all media rights licenses are typically less expensive than adding media rights after your initial license).
7. Length of use - what is the duration of the clip you intend to use and how often will it appear within your project? The number of times a song starts/stops in a production is known as the “needle drop,” a reference to when playback was triggered by the record player’s needle making contact with the vinyl. Needle drops are common in television programs, but less so in film trailers, video game trailers, or music for commercial use where the licensing fee is adjusted to cumulative length of play.
8. Budget - how much cash can you spend on the cue? This may be the most important piece of information for licensors. However, it’s not necessary to include it in your initial correspondence, as you may be exploring costs to determine budget.
Negotiating a Music License
Now that you have your deal points organized, it’s time to contact the rights owner(s) for approval to use the song or cue. Note that every party with a share of ownership will need to grant license for use. However, the party with the largest percentage of interest is often authorized to negotiate and license out material on behalf of the other owners.
Once approval is granted, it’s time to discuss the budget. Though some fees may be fixed (typical for well-known songs), others may have flexibility in their pricing. It’s important to have a firm grasp of your budget, and to approach negotiations with honesty and gratitude. While most rights owners will work with you, they may be quickly turned off if they feel you are undervaluing the material. It’s also important to make sure everybody is on the same page surrounding the payment schedule, or you can risk losing the rights to use the material you worked so hard to secure. If this is a concern, rights owners may be willing to grant you some flexibility on payment schedule, if both sides have a pre-existing relationship.
Sealing the Deal on a Music License
Now that you’ve agreed on terms, it’s time to execute the license. You or your company may be asked to draw up the paperwork. If you are independent and do not have a preferred license form, the master rights and publishers will provide one (and in many instances will prefer to work off their own form agreement).
After that, pay the license fees. Master use and synchronization licenses are not valid until they are paid. Once you pay, congratulations! The dirty work of clearing rights and locking-in licenses has been done. Now drop that licensed music and sound design into your project and let it rip.
If this process feels overwhelming, or you prefer to have some assistance, the Sencit clearance team can take care of it for you. So you can focus on what matters most: cutting a great project. Drop us a line and we’ll help you out.
