Music Licensing - Definitions

Definitions

The following words and phrases appear in discussion of music licensing:

license

the right, granted by the copyright holder, for a given person or entity to broadcast, recreate, or perform a recorded copy of a copyrighted work. Types of licensing contracts can include: 1) A flat fee for a defined period of usage, or 2) Royalty payments determined by the number of copies of the work sold or the total revenues acquired as a result of its distribution. Most music licensing agreements include some form of compensation of the copyright owner when the work in which it is included (i.e. movie, play) is financially successful.

licensor

the owner of the licensed work

licensee

the person or entity to whom the work is licensed

performance

for the purposes of this article, the live performance of a musical piece, regardless of whether it's performed by the original artist or in the manner it is best known

broadcast

the replaying of pre-recorded works to multiple listeners through various media or in a 'semi-live' setting such as a bar or bookstore, and including radio, TV, webcasting, podcasting, etc. (Note: Using this definition and the previous one, you find the information that leads to phrases like 'live broadcast performance'.)

performing rights organization

large companies, the best-known of whom are ASCAP, BMI, and to a lesser extent SESAC (there are others as well) whose fundamental job it is to keep track of every single performance or broadcast of all works protected under copyright. A more in-depth analysis of how these organizations work will be threaded throughout the body of this article.

pre-cleared music

music that has been pre-negotiated for price, distribution and legal use, generally through licensing for film, video, television (commercials and programs), Internet, events, video games and multimedia productions.

copyright

literally, 'the right to copy.' Prior to 1886, no effective international law of copyright existed. The first major international copyright law conventions were the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works created in 1886. It is not within the scope of this document to examine the various changes, additions, and ancillary agreements to the Berne Convention. Beginning in 1976, copyright protection in the United States has been extended to a work of music immediately after it is created. Legal protection is extended to the work without the need to register it with the U.S. Copyright office. A work must be registered, however, before a copyright owner may bring suit against a party which has allegedly infringed on this original work.

synchronization licensing

the licensing of musical works to be synchronized with moving pictures as background in a motion picture, television program, video, DVD, etc.

master use licensing

the licensing of the recording of a musical work to be performed as a soundtrack, bumper, lead-in or background to a motion picture.

publisher

for the purposes of copyright, a publisher is the owner of the copyrighted work. It is now standard practice for songwriters of even the slightest prominence to form a 'publishing company' who actually owns the rights to their work; the reasons for this are matters of legal finery and largely not of value to the scope of this article. This phrasing is reflective of the state of media at the time of the Berne Convention, when all music distribution was done on paper as sheet music (or player piano rolls).