What is the difference between licensing the Master vs licensing the Copyright and why do I need both?
When you think of a song, you’re usually thinking of two things: The song itself, consisting of the words and melody; but in your mind you are probably hearing your favorite recording of that song too. The term used for the recording is the “master” or the “master recording.” The “song” is referred to as the “copyright” or “intellectual property.” Often, you want to license not just the song but also a particular recording of the song. For synchronization licensing of a song and recording, the owner or publisher of the song (or “copyright”) must approve the use for commercial purposes. Then the owner of the recording has to decide if they want their master to be used for commercial purposes. The song and the master recording are not always owned by the same person or company, so in such cases both owners must agree. One of the benefits of licensing music from MPL is our extensive pre-cleared music library, where you can license both the Publishing and Master at once, saving you a lot o
