Sync
& Master License Agreements

You need clean ownership of both the master recording and the composition, plus signed split sheets with every co-writer and producer who contributed. Without those, the licensee cannot confirm you have the right to grant the license, and the deal stalls or falls through. If your splits and producer agreements are not yet papered, you handle that work first. See Music, Production & Collaboration Agreements. If sync placements are becoming a regular revenue stream, the broader licensing-strategy and royalty-collection setup lives under Creator Content Licensing & Monetization.

A sync license covers the song itself, meaning the underlying composition (melody and lyrics). A master use license covers the specific recording of that song. The composition and the recording are two separate copyrights, often owned by different parties: the publisher controls the composition, the record label or independent artist controls the recording. Most placements in film, TV, advertising, games, or social media require both licenses, one for each copyright.

Yes, in almost every commercial placement. The licensee needs the publisher's permission to use the composition and the master rights holder's permission to use the recording. The narrow exception is when the project commissions a fresh recording of a song you wrote: that fresh recording becomes a new master, so only the composition side needs a sync license. Even then, the publisher's approval is required.

Sync fees range from a few hundred dollars for an independent short film to six or seven figures for a well-known song in a national commercial. The variables that move the number are the type of project, the song's commercial profile, the duration of use, the territory (local versus worldwide), and the exclusivity. Attorney fees for reviewing or negotiating the deal are separate. Our flat-fee tiers above cover the legal side.

When you own both sides, you can structure a single deal that grants both licenses at once, which is a real advantage independent artists have. The deal still needs to define the rights granted, the media, the territory, the term, the fee, and what the licensee can and cannot modify. The decisions you make on those points lock in for the term of the license, so a one-time review by an attorney before signing is worth the cost.

Each co-writer's share of the composition is governed by the law of their home jurisdiction, even when the placement itself is in a third country. Quebec applies civil-law moral rights that survive the assignment of economic rights. Ontario and most US states apply common-law copyright. A clean sync clearance traces every co-writer's percentage, confirms each one's permission for the specific use, and accounts for any moral-rights issues in jurisdictions that recognize them.

The rights holder can demand removal, charge a retroactive license fee, or pursue statutory damages up to $30,000 per work (or $150,000 for willful infringement). Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram run automated detection that flags unlicensed music and can mute, demonetize, or remove the upload. Buying a song on iTunes or streaming it on Spotify does not include the right to sync it to a video. The cost of clearing music up front is almost always less than the cost of fixing it after.

Not by default. The film, the underlying composition, and the sound recording are three separate copyrights with their own expiration timelines. A 1933 musical may be in the public domain on the picture side while the score remains protected because the composer lived until 1985. Always check the Copyright Office Public Records Portal and the Library of Congress catalogs for the music separately before reusing it.

A most-favored-nations (MFN) clause says that if any other rights holder on the same project gets better terms than you, your terms automatically rise to match. Music supervisors use MFN to keep multi-song deals balanced. When several songs are licensed for one production, the highest quote sets the floor for everyone. Agreeing to MFN is usually fine if you are confident in your own number. It can quietly raise the project's overall cost in ways the licensee did not budget for.

A direct license means the licensee pays you a one-time buyout instead of letting your performance royalties flow through ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC over time. The trap is that licensees usually keep their PRO blanket licenses anyway, so the buyout caps your performance income at that one-time amount even if the project gets heavy airplay. Run the math against expected airplay before agreeing. For a one-airing local commercial the buyout might make sense; for a recurring TV theme it almost never does.

Start by searching the rights-holder databases at ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC by song title or artist. For older works, also search the U.S. Copyright Office Public Records Portal for registration and renewal records. Many songs have multiple co-writers represented by different publishers, and every one of them needs to grant permission. A single missed publisher is still infringement. The chain when done correctly: identify, request, negotiate, paper.

It's adjacent. The license you are granting to the brand for the music is structured like a sync license. A brand-deal contract typically wraps the music license inside a broader package: appearance fees, social posts, exclusivity windows, and FTC disclosure obligations on you as the influencer side. SGL handles the music side here; the broader brand-deal contract structure lives under Brand Deals & Influencer Agreements. If a brand has already used your music without a deal in place, that's a dispute scenario, not a transactional one. See Platform Defense & Disputes.