Synchronisation Licences – music use in films, TV, advertisements or games
When someone wishes to reproduce music in film, TV, advertisements or games and the music is owned or controlled by third party copyright owners, then permission (or ‘clearance’) should be obtained from the relevant copyright owners.
The clearance is usually embodied in a legal agreement known as a ‘Sync Licence’, because the main reason to use the music will be to play it in synchronisation with visual images such as background music in a film or to make playing a game more upbeat.
The two usual clearances required are as follows:-
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Master Sync Licence – permission to use the sound recording of the music itself must be obtained. The copyright owner will usually be the record label that owns the sound recording. If the band/artist has not assigned their rights in recordings to a record label (ie they are ‘unsigned’) then permission to use their sound recording must be obtained from the band/artist direct. However, if more than fifty years have expired from the first commercial release of the sound regarding in question then such material is outside of copyright protection, and classified as public domain material and no clearance is required. It is always important however to ensure that the performers rights in their actual individual performances on the sound recording are also obtained, which expire (in general) 50 years from the end of the year in which the performance takes place or if it has been released during that period.
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Publishing Sync Licence – additional permission is required from the owner of the underlying copyright owner, namely whoever owns or controls the rights in the composition of the piece of music and the lyrics being used. This will other be the original composer/lyricist or their music publishing company or administrator or estate if that composer/lyricist has granted rights to allow others to deal with such issues or passed on. For works written more than 70 years after the death of the composer/lyricist, no permission is required because such compositions are outside of the protection of copyright, instead being public domain works.
Copyright owners (record labels and music publishers) will usually want payment of a fee to be negotiated before granting the Sync Licence, together with an obligation that their permission be duly credited. If a work is used without obtaining a Sync Licence then the copyright owner can take legal action to prevent it’s unauthorised use. For example, a music publisher could prevent a film from being shown in cinemas by obtaining an injunction where a song is used and no permission for such usage was granted by the publisher to the film production company.
There may be other circumstances where a Sync License or other music licenses must be obtained. When you are considering the use of any music or copyrighted material, you s hould seek specialist advice from us first – we are experienced in the complexities of music licensing.
Contact us
Chris Phillips and Mike Shepherd who head up the Media and Entertainment department here at Bolt Burdon are experienced lawyers used to negotiating and advising on all types of music industry agreements.
To find out more about music licensing agreements, and how we can represent you, please contact us for a free initial consultation on 0207 288 4700.