Music Rights and Sync Licensing
Sync, master and performance rights are counted separately, so one piece of music may need three clearances.
Related
Before music reaches the screen, someone must establish who can license it. A song usually carries three layers of rights: composition, recording and performance, each paid to a different party.
The problem
Teams often assume that buying a record clears the music. A record contains composition and recording rights, and television adds performance rights. Games, trailers and streaming fall under different scopes, and one missing layer surfaces as a takedown or a claim.
The workflow
Clearance follows a chain. A sync licence ties music to picture, a master licence covers a recording, and societies collect performance royalties. Staged works such as opera involve grand rights, counted apart. A public-domain composition can be rearranged, but a particular recording stays protected.
Practice and judgement
List the uses: cinema, television, streaming, trailer, in-game. Confirm whether the music is original, whether it will be arranged, and whether an existing recording is used. Ask about composition and recording separately, and do not enter the final mix until both are clear.
What to listen for
Hear the Scheherazade theme interpreted across different recordings; one score creates a different licensed object with each performance and recording. Hear how recognisable the Once Upon a Time in the West theme is; familiar material needs earlier clearance. The piano demo states a short theme, which is only a composition and contains no recording.
Common misunderstandings
Buying a record is not buying sync rights. Public domain does not free recordings either. In-game use is often treated as interactive, with terms that differ from film and cannot simply be copied.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- Passman, Donald S.，All You Need to Know About the Music Business（Simon & Schuster）— 同步与母带授权章节核对，未引用
- Grove Music Online 的 Copyright 条目 — 作品权与录音权区分核对，未引用
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.