Sync licensing basics for independent artists: one-stop rights, libraries and fees

A sync licence lets someone put your music against moving pictures: a TV scene, a film, an ad, a trailer, a game, a brand video. For independent artists it is one of the few income lines that doesn't depend on stream counts, which is why it attracts so many submission platforms and libraries promising placements.

This guide covers the basics you need before you sign anything or pitch anyone. It is not legal advice. Rules and society practice differ by country, and everything here is as we read it on 24 Oct 2026.

Two rights, two licences

Every recorded track has two copyrights in it. The US Copyright Office's Circular 56A puts it plainly: sound recordings and musical compositions "are considered two separate works for copyright purposes". A copyright in a recording "is not the same as, or a substitute for" the copyright in the song underneath it. The same circular notes the elements can be owned by different parties.

That split is the whole shape of a sync deal:

• The composition (melody, lyrics, the song itself) is cleared with a sync licence, granted by the songwriters or their publisher.
• The master (that specific recording) is cleared with a master-use licence, granted by whoever owns the recording, which is often a label.

A production using your existing recording usually needs both. If a production records its own cover of your song, it needs only the composition side, because the master is theirs.

Revelator's beginner's guide makes the practical point: most placements involve both rights, and both often need approval before a track can be licensed. A single co-writer who doesn't answer an email can stall the whole thing.

What "one-stop" means and why it sells

In sync, "one-stop" describes music where, in Revelator's words, "the master and publishing can both be cleared through one source". One party says yes, signs one agreement, and the track is cleared.

Independent artists are often one-stop without realising it. If you wrote the song alone, recorded it yourself and have no label or publishing deal, you control both sides. That is an advantage over a bigger act whose master sits with a label and whose publishing sits with a publisher, each with its own approval process.

The advantage disappears quickly, though:

• Co-writers. Each writer, or their publisher, controls a share of the composition. You can only offer one-stop if your co-writers have agreed in writing that you (or one administrator) can license the whole song.
• Samples and interpolations. A sample brings in someone else's master and composition. An uncleared sample means the track isn't one-stop, and often can't be licensed at all.
• Hired players and producers. If a producer or session player has a claim on the master or a writing share, it needs to be settled on paper.
• Existing deals. A distribution, publishing administration or library agreement may already give someone else the right to license, or a share of the fee.

The fix is boring and worth it. Keep a signed split sheet for every song and written agreements with anyone who contributed to the recording. Our guide to ISRCs, ISWCs and split sheets covers the paperwork. For why documentation is becoming more valuable as AI tracks fill the cheap end of the market, see our piece on clean chain of title.

The routes: direct, library, agent

There are three broad ways your music reaches a production.

Direct. You pitch music supervisors or production companies yourself and license tracks directly. You keep the whole fee, and you do all the finding, pitching and paperwork yourself.

Music libraries. A library holds a catalogue that productions license from, often quickly and at a set price. Attorney Jennifer Newman Sharpe's guide for CD Baby says libraries typically keep "a percentage of the upfront licensing fee AND a percentage of the public performance royalties". The guide dates from 2015, so treat it as a description of the model, not of any current contract.

Sync agents and publishers. These pitch a smaller catalogue to specific briefs and take a commission or a share of the copyright. Terms vary too widely to summarise. Read the contract.

Exclusive, non-exclusive and retitling

Library contracts come in two broad kinds, and the CD Baby guide sets out the trade-off.

• Exclusive: the library is "the only company allowed to represent your content for synch licensing". The guide says this lets the library "secure higher synch licensing fees", because nobody else can offer the track.
• Non-exclusive: you are free to place the same tracks with other libraries or license them yourself. The guide warns that your music "may have a harder time finding the spotlight".

Some non-exclusive libraries use retitling: registering the song with the PRO under a new title so the library can collect its share of performance royalties for its own placements. The guide says the library then collects royalties for those placements "in perpetuity (forever)", and that retitling "causes confusion for music supervisors, studios, and the performing rights organizations". If the same recording sits in several libraries under several titles, nobody can be sure who cleared which use, and that is exactly the uncertainty a supervisor tries to avoid.

The guide also flags blanket licences, where a production pays a flat fee for access to the whole catalogue: "Often the libraries don't pay the artists who own the songs any share of blanket license fees." Ask how blanket income is shared before you sign.

Before signing any library deal, check:

1. Is it exclusive, and for how long? Can you leave, and what happens to placements already made?
2. What share of the upfront fee do you keep, and what share of the performance royalties?
3. Does the library retitle, and does it take a publishing share?
4. How is blanket and subscription income split?
5. Does the contract let the library use your music to train AI models, or license it to others who do? Look for the words, and ask if they are missing.

Fees: there is no standard rate

You will see confident fee tables online. We couldn't verify any of them against a primary source, so we aren't repeating them. Revelator says sync fees "vary enormously depending on" usage, territory, duration, exclusivity, campaign size, media type, artist profile and budget. The CD Baby guide gives a range from "a couple hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars". Both are honest about the spread, and that is the useful lesson: the fee is negotiated against the specific use.

The terms that move the price are worth learning, because they are what a supervisor's quote request will specify:

• Media: online only, broadcast TV, cinema, all media.
• Territory: one country or worldwide.
• Term: a set period or perpetuity.
• Duration and use: a few seconds in the background, or the featured song under a key scene or a whole ad.
• Exclusivity: whether you can license the track to anyone else in the same category.

A broader licence (worldwide, all media, perpetual) should cost more than a narrow one. If you are offered a low fee, narrow the licence to match it rather than handing over everything.

Getting paid after the fee: cue sheets

The upfront fee is only part of the money. When a show or film is broadcast, the songwriter and publisher shares of performance royalties come through the PRO, and the PRO needs to know your music was used.

That is the job of the cue sheet, a document listing every piece of music in a production. SOCAN says it "must receive an audiovisual cue sheet listing all the music used in each production" to pay the copyright owners. ASCAP's cue sheet pages describe the cue sheet as usually prepared and delivered by the production company, and ASCAP must have one on file before it can process performances for an audiovisual programme.

What this means for you:

• Register the song with your PRO before the placement airs, with the same title and writer splits you give the production.
• Ask the production in writing for a copy of the cue sheet, or at least confirmation that it was filed.
• If a production uses your music under a library's retitled name, the royalties follow that title. Know which title each placement uses.

What we think

Sync rewards being easy to license more than it rewards being the best track on a brief. Supervisors work to deadlines, and a track with one clear owner, signed splits, stems and an instrumental ready is simply less risky than one that needs four emails to clear. An independent artist can get there without a label, and for once the indie set-up is an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

We would be careful with two things. First, exclusive library deals with no advance: you give up every other route for a track in exchange for a promise of reach. Second, retitling across many libraries: it can look like more exposure, but it scatters one recording across several identities and makes the clean ownership story harder to tell. Our view is that a small number of well-documented tracks, licensed on clear terms, is worth more than a large catalogue spread across contracts you can't track.

Finally, ask about AI. Library and platform contracts increasingly touch on training rights, and silence in a contract is not the same as a no. Get it in writing.