Music Licensing Fees

Music Licensing Fees: What Are Music Licensing Fees?

The world of music licensing fees, copyrights and royalties is a complex one – but here at Music Gateway, we want to simplify it as much as possible for the regular creative! What are music licensing fees? Who is responsible for paying music licensing fees? And How much are they? Let’s have a look.

What Are Music Licensing Fees?

Put succinctly, music licensing involves asking permission to use someone’s music for a fee. The reality is a bit more convoluted though, considering the different types of licenses.

Before discussing all that, all musicians must understand what copyright licenses they hold. Essentially, if you write, record and produce a track entirely on your own, then you hold 100% of the master rights and publishing rights – this is because you both wrote and assembled the song.

If, for example, you create a cover of another artist’s song, you are entitled to the master rights, but not the publishing rights. The original artist holds the publishing rights, because they wrote the song that you assembled your cover over.

Who Is Paid Music Licensing Fees?

The music’s rights-holders are paid song licensing fees. Aside from just master and publishing rights, these can include:

• Synchronisation rights. For a fee, a synchronisation license allows your music to be used in TV, films, video games, and other audiovisual media. This is owned by the artist, but often negotiated by a rights organisation which takes a cut of the fee. 
• Mechanical rights. These are usually owned by the artist or their record label. For a fee, mechanical rights give permission to produce physical or digital copies of a track – for example, including a song on a film soundtrack. 
• Performing rights. To play a track in a public performance or broadcast setting, the licenser must pay a fee to the song’s copyright holders. 

How Much Are Music Licensing Fees?

In order to streamline the rules around music licensing costs, the UK’s two biggest music royalty collection organisations – PRS For Music and PPL – have joined forces to create TheMusicLicense.

If you are playing background music at your business’ premises, or for a live event or public performance on your premises, the song licensing fees depend on the audible range of said song. For 1-400sqm of audible area, the fee is £146.30. This increases all the way up to £365.78 for an area of 951-1000sqm. The manager of these establishments will be responsible for paying the music licensing fees.

If you run an online broadcast that generates less than £12,500/yr, then a Limited Online Music License (LOML) is for you. If you stream songs up to 180,000 times per annum during your broadcast, you will pay £262.80. This goes all the way up to £2,620.80 for 1.8mn streams. 

For production companies to license music, you need a production license. The fees themselves are dependent on your project; its budget, its viewing figures, and how much music is used. For films, this is typically £3,000-£10,000. For TV, music licensing fees are typically £21,000-£60,000. 

Limited Manufacture Licenses are available to small projects who only intend to distribute less than 1,000 copies of their audiovisual work. They can get blanket permission to use music, with the cost ramping up the more copies are produced, capped at £300. The creative producer/director will ensure that the song licensing fees are paid.

Lastly, a Pro Dub License is designed for DJs, performers, or fitness instructors. It works similarly to the LOML, ramping up in cost depending on how many tracks you copy per year, starting with 5,000 tracks at £212.77.

License With Music Gateway

Here at Music Gateway, we offer our own licensing services. For those looking to match music to their visuals, we have an extensive catalogue of fantastic independent artists for you to choose from. We have access to all copyright holder information, and can streamline the licensing of our tracks for you!

As for artists, we only represent your synchronisation licenses. When we license your track to an audiovisual production company we retain only up to 25% of the fee you’re paid, and you maintain 100% of your master and publishing rights. This entitles you to all performance and backend royalties. Meanwhile, we continuously pitch your music to top film, TV and gaming executives in London and Los Angeles, bringing you amazing opportunities for high-level income!

Our Final Thoughts

The world of music licensing certainly seems intimidating – but we hope we’ve helped you wrap your head around the essentials. 

Whether you’re a filmmaker, tv producer, game designer, or musician, consider signing up to Music Gateway for the industry’s best sync licensing opportunities. We offer a bespoke, streamlined service to match artists and production teams with minimal copyright hassle. We’ll get you those royalties that you’re entitled to!