Rights and licensing

The two copyrights in every recorded song, who owns them, and the licenses that let others use them.

• Master recording

  A master recording, or master, is the original fixed recording of a performance from which every copy is made. In copyright law it is protected separately from the song it contains: the master belongs to whoever owns the sound recording — usually a record label, or the artist when self-released — while the composition belongs to its songwriters and publishers.

• Mechanical license

  A mechanical license is permission to reproduce and distribute a musical composition in an audio recording, whether as a CD, vinyl record, download or interactive stream. The royalties it generates, called mechanicals, are owed to the song's writers and publishers. In the United States, Section 115 of the Copyright Act makes the license compulsory once a song has been released, at rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board.

• Music publishing

  Music publishing is the business of owning or administering the copyrights in compositions. A publisher registers a songwriter's works with collecting societies, licenses them for recordings, performances, film and print, and collects the resulting royalties, keeping a share under the terms of a publishing, co-publishing or administration deal.

• Neighboring rights

  Neighboring rights, also called related rights, are rights adjacent to copyright that belong to performers and to the producers of sound recordings rather than to songwriters. In countries that recognize them, broadcasters and public venues pay for playing recordings, and collecting societies distribute that money to the featured and session performers and the master owners. The United States has no general neighboring right for terrestrial radio.

• Split sheet

  A split sheet is a short written agreement, signed by everyone who contributed to a song, that records each person's percentage of ownership. A publishing split divides the composition among its writers; a master split divides the recording among its owners. Each must total exactly 100%, and it is best signed at or soon after the session, before anyone's memory differs.

• Synchronization license

  A synchronization license, or sync license, is permission from a composition's copyright owners to use the song in timed relation to moving images, such as a film, TV show, advertisement, video game or online video. Using an existing recording also requires a separate master use license from the recording's owner. Sync fees are negotiated; there is no statutory rate.