Sync Licensing – How To License Your Music To TV, Movies, Audiovisual

When it comes to music copyright laws, lots of artists still struggle to understand how they can secure payments for their hard work. With copyrights, a song can generate revenue through sync licensing, print licensing, performing rights or mechanical rights. There a couple of different types of rights in the music industry: from composition to performance and even the production aspects of making music. The share of the profits depends upon the deal stroke between the professionals involved in that track. Keep reading to know more about copyright laws and learn how to safely license your music to audiovisual media.  

Undestanding about copyrights

Before heading into sync licensing, we should take a moment to further understand how to copyright music in the US. According to the Copyright Act of 1976, each songwriting process generates copyrights automatically. Even with the regulations created through the Act, artists can still register their new music with the U.S. Copyright Office. This step advisable yet completely optional. There a couple of different rights attached to a musical track: mechanical rights, performing rights, sync and print. The first two are the most common ones so let’s focus on that for now. Mechanical royalties are generated whenever a physical or digital copy of that song is made. Songwriters get 100% of that money but will redistribute according to what was agreed by everyone. The profits here are collected though Mechanical Rights Organizations (MRO). Performance royalties, on the other hand, are collected through Performing Rights Organizations (PROs). Usually, 50% of the revenue generated here is directed to the composer and the other 50% goes to the publisher. When it comes to independent artists, they are often their own publisher. In order to help with copyright protection, PROs will rely on the ISRC code (International Standard Recording Code). The system exists to help ID each track so it’s easier to process their licensing rights.  

What is sync licensing?

Synchronization rights — or just sync rights, for short — come into play whenever a production company adds music to their video. Here we can consider all types of movies, TV shows, advertisements, video games and even music videos. So, whenever we talk about sync licensing, we’re talking about the process of issuing a permit to allow the usage of a a track in those scenarios. It’s important to be clear that this is the only legal way to have the rights to associate a song with a video project. Be careful not to mix up sync licenses with public performance licenses. Even though those two types occur when a song is on a video, they are not the same. The first one only covers the performance aspect without visual elements, while the latter one also includes the possibility to sync that music with images.  

How sync licensing protects your music on audiovisual media

Before licensing your music for synchronization, you should know that there are two different permits to put a song on audiovisual media. Masters license allows the use of the original recording, while sync license composition allows the use of the melody and lyrics. Both those rights belong to the publisher, so, they’re the part that production companies will contact for licensing deals.

Why is sync licensing so important?

Even in the age of Spotify, it’s still very relevant to have your music synched up with a piece of audiovisual media. This extra exposure of your work can certainly help to amplify your music’s reach. Another way to do that is with samples. In this type of songwriting, the artist can take an existing song’s melody or piece of lyric to make a new track. This all should happen with the proper accreditation and following all the sampling music laws, of course.  

How does it work?

Whenever a song is licensed for sync usage, the revenue generated from the deal is collected by Performance Rights Organizations. The money is than split between the composer and the publisher. The license contract will also generate masters license and sync license fees. The first one goes to the record label and the latter one goes to the publisher. As we’ve mentioned before, the publisher is also the part that should be contacted by companies wanting to get sync licenses. It’s very important to make sure you have the proper licenses before adding a song to a video project. Doing so without the proper permissions can lead to legal action by the publisher or artist that holds the copyrights.  

Protecting your copyrights

In the music industry, music copyright laws play a huge part in making sure musicians will get paid for their work. It’s very important to know how to copyright music to make sure you get the right permissions for each type of use. Talking specifically about sync licensing, you want to do things right the first time so not to risk having to pull your audiovisual project off of distribution. If you're interested in deepening your knowledge on these matters, check out our article on sampling music laws too. It's important so you don't get lost using samples on your music. And remember: how to cover a song legally is a whole other deal, check our article if you'd like.