Music licensing is how you give someone permission to use your song in exchange for a fee, royalties or both. Every recorded song carries two separate copyrights: the composition (melody and lyrics, owned by the writers and their publishers) and the master (the recording itself, owned by whoever made or paid for it). Every license touches one side or both. As an indie artist who writes and records your own music, you probably own both, which is a real advantage.
Four licenses cover almost everything an independent artist runs into: sync (your song in film, TV, ads or games), master use (the recording side of that same deal), mechanical (reproducing the song as audio: streams, downloads, CDs, covers) and public performance (radio, TV broadcasts, venues, streaming). Mechanical and performance royalties are mostly collected for you once your songs are registered. Sync is the one you have to go out and pitch, and it is usually the biggest single paycheck.
| Side | What it is | Who usually owns it | What it earns from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composition | The song as written: melody, lyrics, chords | The writers, and any publisher or admin they signed with | Sync fees, mechanical royalties, performance royalties |
| Master | One specific recording of that song | You if you self-funded it; otherwise a label or financier | Master use fees, streaming and download income, digital radio royalties |
Licenses are issued separately for each side. A film that wants your track needs a sync license for the composition and a master use license for the recording. If you control both sides, you can sign both in one step, which is what one-stop means and why music supervisors like working with indie artists.
| License | What it covers | Who grants or collects | How you get paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sync | The composition paired with picture: film, TV, ads, trailers, games, some online video | Writers and publishers, negotiated deal by deal | An upfront fee, plus performance royalties when it airs (via the cue sheet) |
| Master use | The recording paired with picture | The master owner | An upfront fee, often matched to the sync fee |
| Mechanical | Reproducing the composition as audio: streams, downloads, CDs, vinyl, cover versions | In the US, set by statute; on-demand streaming and download mechanicals are collected by The MLC under a blanket license | Per unit or per stream. The 2026 US rate for physical copies and downloads is 13.1 cents per song (or 2.52 cents per minute for songs over five minutes) |
| Public performance | The composition played publicly: radio, TV, venues, streaming | Performing rights organizations (PROs) such as ASCAP or BMI in the US; for the recording on non-interactive digital radio, SoundExchange | Royalties per play, paid quarterly or so after registration |
Two things surprise most artists. First, The MLC does not handle sync, YouTube or radio; it covers on-demand streaming and downloads in the US. Second, nobody pays you mechanical or performance royalties automatically. If the song is not registered, the money sits unclaimed or goes to whoever did register.
Per-unit licensing pays small amounts at scale. At the 2026 US statutory rate, 1,000 downloads of a four-minute song generate $131 in mechanical royalties for the writers and publishers combined. Streaming mechanicals are a fraction of a cent per stream, split among everyone on the composition.
Sync pays in lumps. Rough ranges per side (master and composition each) run from nothing or a few hundred dollars for student and indie film, to roughly $500 to $3,000 for background use in a TV series, and much more for featured uses, national ads and trailers. Then performance royalties follow every time the show airs. Our breakdown of how sync placements pay goes deeper, and if someone asks for your song with no budget, read this before you say yes.
Missing registrations are the quiet leak. The loud one is losing sync opportunities you were qualified for. A brief arrives asking for a specific tempo, mood and lyric theme with a 48-hour deadline, and the right song is somewhere in a folder of 300 untitled bounces. Writers who license regularly treat their songwriter catalog like inventory: every song tagged, cleared and findable in minutes, so they can send the best two or three matches while the brief is still open.
Pitchkit handles the matching step. Paste a brief and it ranks every song in your catalog by BPM, key, energy, mood and (with transcription on) lyrics, then copies your picks into a pitch folder. It does not register songs, collect royalties or negotiate licenses. It makes sure the best song you already own reaches the person who can license it. Your files never leave your Mac.
Related reading: how to answer a sync brief in under an hour, how to pitch music for sync licensing and pitch email templates.
Music licensing is the umbrella term for any permission to use a song. Sync licensing is one type: permission to pair a composition with moving pictures such as film, TV, ads or games. Mechanical and performance licenses are the other main types, and they cover audio reproduction and public plays rather than use in video.
Yes. If you wrote the song and own the recording, you can sign sync and master use licenses yourself and be one-stop, which makes you quick to clear. You still need to register with a PRO for performance royalties and arrange mechanical collection, either directly or through a publishing administrator. A publisher, sync agent or library is optional and adds relationships in exchange for a share.
For audio releases, yes: you need a mechanical license for the composition, which in the US is available at the statutory rate without the writer's approval, and many distributors offer cover licensing as an add-on. Putting a cover in a video or pitching it for sync is different and needs permission from the original publisher. See our guide on cover songs and sync for the details.
Through four channels: upfront sync and master use fees paid directly by the production, mechanical royalties collected by The MLC or a publishing administrator, performance royalties paid by your PRO, and digital performance royalties for the recording paid by SoundExchange in the US. Only the first is negotiated. The other three depend on your songs being registered correctly.
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