What are synchronization rights and master rights?
Synchronization or “sync” rights are involved whenever recorded music is used in combination with visual images in a production. When you hear music on the radio or TV, this recording is instead known in the music industry as the “master recording”. This is what is produced after all the musicians have played their parts and these parts have been “mixed” together for release. When music is licensed for commercial purposes you are selling two types of licenses: • Synchronization License: gives you the right to ‘sync’ the Composition with images in your production. • Master Use License: This is exactly the same rights as the sync license, except it applies to the Master, the sound recording itself – the actual recorded interpretation of the musical composition. According to the legal agreements referring to each situation, these rights can be: • owned 100% by the musician/band (quite frequent in the case of independent musicians). • divided in quotas between the various songwriters/band
