What is a master recording?

A master recording (or "master") is the finished, original recording of a track, and the copyright in it is what US law calls the copyright in a sound recording: a right in the recorded sounds themselves, separate from the song they capture.

"Master" is industry vocabulary, not a term in the statute. When people talk about "owning your masters", they mean owning the sound-recording copyright.

What the law protects

The US Copyright Act defines sound recordings as "works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds but not including sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work", according to the US Copyright Office's Circular 56. The Office describes a sound recording as, generally, "a recorded performance, often of another work".

Two practical consequences from the same circular:

• The soundtrack of a video is not a sound recording. Circular 56 lists the soundtrack of a music video or a concert video as examples that do not qualify.
• The file is not the work. A "phonorecord" is the physical object that holds the recording, and the Office counts digital files such as .mp3 and .wav as phonorecords. Copying the file around does not change who owns the recording.

The master is not the song

The Copyright Office says sound recordings and musical compositions "are considered two separate works for copyright purposes", and that copyright in a recording "is not the same as, or a substitute for", copyright in the underlying composition (Circular 56A). So a cover version is a new master of an existing song, and owning a master does not mean you own the song on it. We explain both halves in two copyrights in every song.

Who owns a master

Circular 56 says the author of a sound recording is "the performer featured in the recording and the producer who captured and processed the sounds". The exception is work made for hire: if the performer or producer made it as an employee, or made it for a third party under a written work-made-for-hire agreement in the qualifying categories, the employer or that third party is the author.

Protection is automatic. The Office says sound recordings created after 1 January 1978 are protected by copyright, that a recording is created when it is first fixed, and that neither registration nor publication is needed for protection. Federal law did not cover sound recordings fixed before 15 February 1972; older recordings have their own rules, which this page does not cover.

One limit worth knowing: the Office says the owner of a sound recording generally has no exclusive right to perform it publicly, except "by means of a digital audio transmission".

What we think

"Own your masters" has become a slogan, but the default rule is quieter than the slogan suggests: if you record your own track with no contract, the law starts you as an author of the master. Most people lose masters on paper, not in the studio, through a work-made-for-hire clause or an assignment in a label or production deal. So the useful habit is boring: before you sign anything, find the words "work made for hire", "assign" and "sound recording" and know what each one gives away. This is general information on US law, not legal advice; other countries, India included, have their own rules.