Music is a big part of civilization. Centuries have passed but music has survived and even risen to greater heights every decade. In fact, the demand for music has been growing steadily over the last 10 years and will continue to do so in the future. This music industry now comes with a huge amount of revenue year after year. It is an irresistible force, as people are always looking around for the next great artist, thus continuing the relevance of the cycle and the music. The demand for music content is the highest ever. Global music revenue has been stable since the turn of the century. Currency is measured in billions.
With the development of technology, music has become more technical, complex, and in demand. Others take credit for using music that is not their own. Nowadays, independent musicians are well aware of protecting their work for legal purposes. With music licensing, you can be sure that your assets/work are legally protected.
What is music licensing? Music licensing is licensed to be used for copyrighted music. This allows the owner of the music to retain the copyright to their original work. This confirms the owner of the musical work if their music is used by others. Music licensing companies have limited rights to use the work without a separate agreement. At Music Licensing, you can get your work licensed for music, composition and songwriting.
During the music licensing process, there are terms that the relevant groups will discuss. If you are an independent musician, you will be a licensee. You are responsible for the music created, thus you own the copyright of the licensed work. There will be a licensed music licensing company because they will distribute your art to other industries. If your music is included in live performances, TV shows, commercials, campaigns, video games, etc., they will collect a royalty fee to refund you.
There are also two types of music licensing agreements, exclusive agreements and non-exclusive agreements. Exclusive contract means licensing your work to a single music licensing company. Only one company has the ability to distribute and market your work. If you sign a special agreement to your song or album, you may not use the same music content and it may not be signed by other music licensing agencies. The agreement is exclusive and confidential to the licensee and the licensee.
The non-exclusive agreement allows a second party to distribute your work and does not prohibit the licensee from selling their music to other music licensing companies or licensees. An independent musician can sign a non-exclusive contract with multiple companies using the same music content. Non-exclusive contracts are usually used to prevent a person from being stuck in a limited contract before the popularity of his work. Such agreements are designed to protect music artists from the process of taking their music to a larger audience early in their careers.
There are also cases that pay directly for the music content used. This is called a sink fee. Sync Fee is a license granted by a copyrighted music holder to allow a licensee to synchronize music with visual media such as advertisements, movies, TV shows, movie trailers, video games, etc. In a limited time to find music content and a for a specific project.
In this case, the artist and music licensing company will be contacted directly for possible use of the original work and payment in advance will be negotiated. Sync fees can range from a few dollars to several hundred dollars or even a few thousand. Payment usually depends on how big and established a company is. If it is a well-known company, there is a possibility that the sink fee price will increase.
We need to understand that businesses are paying the highest premium ever for music nowadays. The flow and earnings that come from different industries are worth billions of dollars and music artists who get their music licenses will get a big chunk of that money. The content of the music is very important. Every single company needs visual and audio content. You cannot advertise, show or make movies without any music content.
Music licensing brings compensation for the assets used. This is called royalty fee. A royalty fee is a payment collected from one party to another for the ongoing use of a copyrighted property. You can get compensation if your work is shown in live public performance. For each live use of your music, you will be compensated as the copyright owner of your work.