This short guide will elaborate the different types of music licenses that every music users should know in order to minimize the confusion associated with music licensing. As a rule of thumb, every music rights have a specific license associated to it.

So to better illustrate the types of music licenses, lets illustrate the rights that are possibly to be exploited as well as its associated licenses:

1.) Right to use music in public performance – this right grants music users to play copyrighted music in public. Example is playing songs in radio stations, theaters, malls, private offices and even in the restaurants and bars. To exploit this right, is that the user needs to acquire public performance music license.

You can get this license from the public performance right societies. Read this post regarding “License to Play Music in Public- Simple Advices to get started”:

2.) Right to use music in film, movies and TV – this right grants music users to play music in synchronization with film, movies and TV scene. This is also known as “sync” or “synchronization” rights and this needs a synchronization license.

Take note that synchronization license only covers the use of “lyrics and melody” with respect to a film, movie or TV program, and does not include the master recording or the recording itself.

3.) Right to use the music recording – this right grants music users to exploit the underlying music recording of a certain song in a specific music application. In order to use this right, the user needs a “master recording license”. So for example, if the application is in film, the producer of the movie needs to acquire synchronization license and master recording license.

4.) Right to reproduce music in copies – this right grants users to reproduce the music in any form except the reproduction of lyrics in sheets. A good example is reproduction of song in CD, DVD, and cassette tape or in any mechanical form. To exploit this right, a user needs to have a “mechanical license”.

So if a recording producer who owns both music copyright and the sound recording needs to sell his product to a recording label, the label needs to obtain mechanical and master recording license from the recording producer.

5.) Right to reproduce music in printed sheets – a good example is that a magazine needs to publish your lyrics including chords of your songs. In this case, the magazine owners need to obtain printed music sheet license from the copyright owner.