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What is a synchronization license?

 

Please note: The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) does not administer synchronization licenses or distribute synchronization royalties. 

A synchronization license grants permission to incorporate a musical work and/or sound recording in a visual media such as film, television shows, commercials, video games, and more recently, user-created content posted on YouTube and TikTok. It is also referred to as a “sync license.” 

 

A party that wishes to obtain a synchronization license must contact the copyright owner or administrator of the work to negotiate the terms of the license. The party obtaining the license generally pays a fee directly to the copyright owner. Depending on the work, the cost can range greatly from a small fee for a lesser-known work to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a popular song.