Sync license

A synchronisation licence covers the use of a composition in timed relation to visual media. There is no statutory rate and no compulsory licence for it: sync is negotiated freely, which means either side can refuse and the price is whatever the parties agree.

Using an existing recording requires two licences, not one. The sync licence comes from the publisher or writer and covers the song; a master use licence comes from the owner of the recording and covers that specific track. Both are needed, both can be refused independently, and a production that has cleared only one has cleared nothing usable. Re-recording the song avoids the master side but still requires the sync licence.

The terms that set the fee are the ones worth reading first: the media covered (a single national advertising campaign is not the same grant as all media in perpetuity), the territory, the term, whether the use is exclusive within a product category, the duration and prominence of the placement, and whether the licence extends to trailers, promotional cut-downs and social edits. Options to extend are common and should be priced at the outset rather than renegotiated under deadline.

Most favoured nation treatment appears constantly in sync. Where one side takes MFN, they are guaranteed terms no worse than the other side receives, which in practice means the two halves settle at the higher number and neither can be quietly undercut.

Speed matters as much as price. Supervisors work to locked deadlines, so a track whose ownership is documented and whose approvals sit with one party — a one-stop — has a real advantage over one that clears at the same fee but takes three weeks to answer.