What brand use of your music is worth

What sets the fee

1. Your profile as an artist. Reach, chart history and following. A well-known act commands a higher fee than an emerging one.
2. How your song performs. Streams, playlists and chart presence. This counts separately from the artist: not every song by a well-known artist carries the same value.
3. Type of use. Organic post, paid ad or influencer campaign. Paid use is typically priced above organic use.
4. Territory. Where the post or ad ran. The US, the UK and Germany are the biggest sync markets.
5. Duration. How long the use ran, or was meant to run.
6. Prominence. Featured or in the background, and the length of the clip.
7. The brand and its reach. The size of the brand, views, followers and ad spend.

Two licenses, two fees

A song has two sides: the recording and the composition. A brand needs a license for both, and each side has its own fee. In practice the two fees usually match, so the full license fee is both sides together.

In the US, the fee is not the ceiling

Under US copyright law, a rights holder can ask for statutory damages instead of the license fee: $750 to $30,000 per work, and up to $150,000 per work when the use was willful.

This usually requires that the work was registered with the US Copyright Office before the use began, or within three months of its first release. Registering now does not help for a use that already started. It does cover every use after the registration date.

We can help you register your songs with the US Copyright Office. Email us to get started.

How we value it

We value it the way a sync license is priced: on these factors, from our own years of licensing work. There is no rate card for sync. Every fee is set per deal, which is why the factors above matter.

Questions

Is there a standard rate for a sync license?

No. Sync fees are negotiated per deal, so what a use would have cost depends on the factors above.

Does a bigger artist always mean a bigger fee?

Not always. Your profile as an artist and the performance of the song are weighed separately, and a song that took off can be worth more than the artist's profile alone suggests.

Does it matter whether the post was organic or paid?

Yes. Paid ads and influencer campaigns are typically priced above organic posts.

Is the license fee all I can recover in the US?

In the US, not always. A rights holder can ask for statutory damages instead: $750 to $30,000 per work, and up to $150,000 per work when the use was willful. This usually requires that the work was registered with the US Copyright Office in time.

Do I need to register my song to get statutory damages?

Usually, yes. The work has to be registered with the US Copyright Office before the use began, or within three months of its first release. Registering now covers every use after the registration date, not one that already started. We can help you register.

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