Music Clearance Checklist: Sync, Master, Mechanical, Sample, and Performance

By Casey Scott McKay · 2024-07-06

This is the working checklist for clearing music in any medium, in eleven phases, from the cue specification you write before making a single call through the signed delivery schedule your distributor's clearance counsel will audit. It covers mapping each use to the rights it touches, identifying every owner and every fractional share across the MLC, Songview, SoundExchange, and Copyright Office recordation records, verifying your own split sheets and producer agreements before you ask anyone else for paper, running the license-type matrix, sending quote requests, caging most-favored-nations exposure, clearing samples or replaying them under 17 U.S.C. § 114(b), taking the mechanical for a soundtrack album, filing cue sheets and registering with the PROs and SoundExchange, timing copyright registration against the 17 U.S.C. § 412 window, and negotiating the warranty, indemnity, liability cap, and errors-and-omissions coverage a distributor will require. Every item is an action, with the authority behind it and the specific way practitioners get it wrong. A deadlines table collects the statutory and contractual clocks in one place, and a single invented documentary matter is carried through all eleven phases so the reader can see what a finished clearance file looks like. The doctrine lives in the companion article and the reasoning in the companion guide; this document is the sequence you work top to bottom.

IP and Technology > Copyright | Checklist | Published 6 July 2024 - Updated 22 January 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us

Summary. Eleven phases that take a music clearance from an unlocked cue list to a delivered, insured, registered project: specify the use, find every owner and every fraction, fix your own split sheets and producer agreements, run the license-type matrix, send quote requests and cage the MFN clause, negotiate the sync and master pair, clear the sample or replay it under 17 U.S.C. § 114(b), take the mechanical for the soundtrack, file the cue sheet and turn on the performance royalties, register with the Copyright Office inside the § 412 window, negotiate the warranty-indemnity-cap-insurance stack, and assemble the delivery binder. Each item is a command, with its authority and its characteristic failure mode. A deadlines table gathers the statutory and contractual clocks. One invented documentary — an eighty-eight-minute film with eleven cues, one difficult sample, and a sales agent who wants perpetuity — runs through every phase so you can see what "done" looks like.

Keywords: music clearance checklist · sync license · master use license · mechanical license · sample clearance · cue sheet · split sheet · most favored nations · mechanical licensing collective · soundexchange · performing rights organization · errors and omissions insurance · interpolation · replay · isrc and iswc · chain of title · quote request · indemnification cap · copyright registration timing · delivery schedule

What this checklist is for

Clearing music means getting permission twice for nearly every second of audio you did not create yourself — once for the composition, once for the recording — from two owners who do not speak to each other and owe each other nothing. This checklist runs that job end to end.

Who should use it. Producers, music supervisors, and their counsel on film, television, game, podcast, and advertising projects. Labels and self-releasing artists clearing samples and interpolations. In-house counsel signing off on a campaign before it books media. Anyone who has to certify to a distributor or an insurance underwriter that a project is clean.

What you need before you start.

A cue list with timecodes to the second, keyed to a specific cut of the picture (or a track list with sample timings, if the deliverable is a record).
The delivery date, and the music warranty in the distribution or sales agency agreement. Read that warranty first. It defines what "cleared" has to mean.
The music budget as a single number, and permission to spend it.
Audio files with embedded ISRCs, plus label copy or liner notes for the "℗" line.
Your own paperwork: recording agreements, producer agreements, split sheets, side-artist releases.
A rights map — one spreadsheet row per cue, one column per rights holder, with percentages, contacts, and dates.
Authority to cut a cue. Leverage in this field is entirely a function of your credible willingness to use different music.

The doctrine behind every step — the two-copyright structure, § 115, the Bridgeport/VMG Salsoul split, the § 114(b) replay privilege — is in Two Copyrights, One Song. The reasoning, model clauses, and price ranges behind each item are in Clearing a Track. This document does not re-teach either. It is the sequence.

The matter we carry through. Third Rail Pictures, an Austin documentary shop, is finishing Ninth Ward Sound — 88 minutes, eleven music uses, a $2.4 million all-in budget with $95,000 for music. Engagement opened 12 January 2026. Picture locks 13 April. Delivery to the sales agent is 15 July, and the agent's schedule requires complete chain-of-title 45 days before that. Two cues drive the whole file. Cue 6 is "Careless Weather," recorded by The Lowline Trio in 1998 on Fingerpost Records — 1:26 of featured vocal under an interview at 00:41:12. Cue 11 is "Levee Sunday," an end-title track newly commissioned from producer Dez Okonkwo, built on four bars sampled from a 1969 recording, "Parish Line Strut" by the Delacroix Brass Kings. Nine of the eleven cues are going on a soundtrack album.

The phases at a glance

| Phase | You finish with | Realistic elapsed time | Owner | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1. Map the use | A written cue specification per cue and a back-solved calendar | 1-3 days | Counsel + producer | | 2. Identify works and owners | A rights map with every fractional share named | 2-10 business days per cue | Supervisor or clearance service | | 3. Verify your own paper | Signed split sheets, producer assignments, side-artist releases | 1-2 weeks | Counsel | | 4. Run the license matrix | A per-cue list of exactly which licenses are required | 1 day | Counsel | | 5. Quote and cage MFN | Written quotes, scoped MFN, a budget you can defend | 2-8 weeks | Supervisor + counsel | | 6. Negotiate and paper | Executed sync and master licenses | 2-6 weeks | Counsel | | 7. Clear the sample | Executed sample licenses, or a replay, or a cut | 8-24 weeks | Counsel + producer | | 8. Mechanicals | Soundtrack and physical mechanicals secured | 1-3 weeks | Counsel | | 9. Performance and cue sheet | Filed cue sheet; PRO and SoundExchange registrations live | 30 days from first exhibition | Production + distributor | | 10. Registration and royalties | Copyright registrations filed; MLC and PRO works registered | Same week as release | Counsel | | 11. E&O, indemnity, delivery | Bound policy and an accepted delivery binder | 2-4 weeks | Counsel + producer |

Phase 1 — Map the use

[ ] Write a use specification for every cue before you contact a single rights holder. Eleven fields: work and recording; timecode in and out with duration; use type; media; territory; term; trailers and advertising, in-context and out-of-context; soundtrack album; permitted alterations; exclusivity; budget ceiling.
- Why. A licensor quotes the question you asked. "We want the song in our film" gets you a festival quote for North America, which is worthless to a sales agent who needs worldwide perpetual all-media.
- Trap. Never write "we're not sure yet" in any field. Uncertainty is priced at the maximum.
[ ] Ask for "all media now known or hereafter devised." A 2011 license enumerating "theatrical and television" does not obviously reach a 2026 streaming exclusive, and the renegotiation happens when you have no leverage.
[ ] Ask for out-of-context promotional rights in the first request. In-context means the cue appears in the trailer against the same footage; out-of-context means marketing can cut it against anything. Publishers price these separately and will not add the second later for free.
[ ] Read the distribution or sales agency agreement's music warranty and delivery schedule now. Extract the exact list of documents the distributor requires and the date they are due. That list is your definition of done.
[ ] Back-solve the calendar from delivery. Add up the durations in the table above, add thirty percent for the counterparty who does not answer, and put the resulting date on the production calendar as a hard milestone.
- Trap. The decision to cut a difficult sample must be made before picture lock. After lock, re-editing costs more than the entire music budget — which is precisely how Third Rail lost money on its previous film.
[ ] Flag every cue a character sings, plays, hums, or names on camera. These cannot be swapped in post. Clear them at the script or assembly stage.
[ ] Quarantine the temp track. Put a written policy in the edit bay: temp music is labeled, logged, and never left in a cut shown to the director without a clearance status attached. Editors fall in love with temp; directors fall in love with the editor's cut.
[ ] Price the alternative on day one. For every expensive cue, identify a substitution the editor could live with, and get a quote for an original commissioned composition owned outright as a work made for hire. Roughly half the time the answer is that you do not need that song.

Ninth Ward Sound, cue 6: all media now known or hereafter devised; the universe; perpetuity; in-context and out-of-context promotion; soundtrack option exercisable within 24 months; edit for length only, no lyric or melodic change; nonexclusive; ceiling $9,000 for sync and master combined.

Phase 2 — Identify the works, the owners, and the fractions

[ ] Pull the ISRC from the audio file and the ISWC for the composition. The ISRC is twelve characters — two-character country code, three-character registrant, two-digit year of reference, five-digit designation — and identifies the exact master. The ISWC runs T followed by nine digits and a check digit.
- Trap. Remasters, radio edits, and live versions carry different ISRCs and sometimes different owners. Confirm you are clearing the master that is actually in the cut, not the one on the streaming service.
[ ] Search the MLC Public Work Search for composition ownership and splits. It returns the ISWC, the writers, the publishers, and each administrator's percentage.
- Why. Publishers have a direct financial incentive to keep MLC data accurate, which makes it the best single source for composition ownership.
- Trap. If the displayed shares do not total 100%, the remainder is unclaimed. That is a problem, not a rounding error.
[ ] Cross-check Songview, the joint ASCAP/BMI database, then SESAC's repertory search. If a commercially significant writer appears in none of the three, assume GMR and telephone them; their repertory is not usefully searchable.
[ ] Search the Copyright Office public catalog and the recordation records. Online coverage runs from 1978 forward; earlier material sits in the digitized Catalog of Copyright Entries, and the Office will run a fee-based records search under 17 U.S.C. § 705.
- Why. A recorded assignment or security interest under 17 U.S.C. § 205 may show that the publisher quoting you sold the catalogue eighteen months ago. Section 205(d) gives priority to the earlier-recorded of two conflicting transfers where the recordation requirements are met.
[ ] Run SoundExchange's ISRC and rights-owner lookup for the master, then close the gap between the imprint on the record and today's owner through the trade record. "Fingerpost Records, 1998" usually resolves to a major's catalogue division through two acquisitions.
[ ] Diagram every fractional share and name a contact for each. A license from the 50% owner leaves you 50% unlicensed, which is to say infringing. There is no such thing as being half-licensed to reproduce a work.
- Authority. Any joint owner may grant a nonexclusive license to the whole work subject to a duty to account, but publishers license only their controlled share precisely to avoid that duty. See Who Owns the Work.
[ ] Check the termination windows. Post-1977 grants are recapturable 35 years after execution under 17 U.S.C. § 203; pre-1978 grants 56 years from copyright under § 304(c). Notice is served two to ten years in advance and recorded before the effective date.
- Trap. The publisher quoting you a perpetual worldwide license may not control the U.S. share for the whole of your perpetual term. The derivative works exception at § 203(b)(1) protects a derivative already prepared under the grant; it does not authorize new ones. Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder, 469 U.S. 153 (1985). Work the sequence in the Copyright Ownership and Chain-of-Title Checklist and Transfers, Licenses, and Termination Rights.
[ ] Ask, in writing, whether writer approval is required and how long it takes. Publishing agreements routinely reserve writer consent over advertising, political content, and sometimes any audiovisual use. Publishers disclose this after you have agreed on price.
[ ] For a worldwide grant, get the controlled territories named. Sub-publishing is territorial, and the entity that can license you for the United States may not control the United Kingdom.

Trap. A cue is not identified until you can state, in one sentence, who controls what percentage of the composition, who owns the master, and what documents prove it. "I think Bellhouse has it" is not identification.

Ninth Ward Sound, cue 6: composition — J. Antrim (ASCAP, IPI on file, 50%, administered by Bellhouse Songs) and R. Ossa (BMI, 50%, administered by Kettle Row Music). Master — Fingerpost Records 1998, now held by a major's catalogue division. Three counterparties, two licenses, 100% accounted for.

Phase 3 — Verify your own paper

[ ] Collect a signed split sheet for every composition you or your production created. Legal names, PRO, IPI number, publisher, writer share, publishing share. Writer shares total 100%. Publishing shares total 100%.
- Why. Without one, joint authorship is litigated years later against the intent standard of Childress v. Taylor, 945 F.2d 500 (2d Cir. 1991), and the independent-contribution requirement of Erickson v. Trinity Theatre, Inc., 13 F.3d 1061 (7th Cir. 1994).
[ ] Confirm the split sheet contains a pro rata reduction clause. It answers, in advance, the question that wrecks sample negotiations: when a sampled publisher takes 25%, whose 25% is it?
[ ] Confirm the split sheet contains a Schedule A disclosing every sample, interpolation, loop, library element, and AI-generated stem. Force the disclosure at creation, while the person who put it there still remembers.
[ ] Get a written assignment from every producer, not just a work-for-hire recital. Sound recordings are not among the nine categories of specially ordered or commissioned works eligible for work-made-for-hire treatment under 17 U.S.C. § 101. Congress added them by technical amendment in 1999 and removed them in 2000. Pub. L. No. 106-379, 114 Stat. 1444 (2000).
- Trap. A work-for-hire clause with no assignment backstop leaves an independent producer as a potential joint author of your master.
[ ] Take a producer letter of direction at execution, directing the label or distributor to pay producer points directly and directing SoundExchange to pay the producer's share under 17 U.S.C. § 114(g)(5). Signed later, it is a negotiation; signed at execution, it is administration.
[ ] Get a signed release from every guest vocalist, session player, and featured performer, confirming assignment, name and likeness use, and — critically — that the performer's own label has consented, because most exclusive recording agreements forbid recording for anyone else.
[ ] Get a written provenance representation covering generated audio. Ask whether any delivered stem, loop, or vocal was produced by or with a generative model, and require it to be listed. Authorship and disclosure mechanics are in Who Owns What the Machine Made and the Generative AI IP Compliance Checklist.
[ ] Do not rely on an implied nonexclusive license. Exclusive transfers require a signed writing under 17 U.S.C. § 204(a); a nonexclusive license can arise from delivery for a known purpose, Effects Associates, Inc. v. Cohen, 908 F.2d 555, 558 (9th Cir. 1990). No clearance department accepts one and no underwriter insures one.

Phase 4 — Run the license-type matrix

[ ] Assign each cue to a row and write down the licenses it requires. Do this on paper, per cue, before anyone starts negotiating.

| What the cue does | Composition license | Sound recording license | Also required | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Existing record in a film, show, game, or ad | Sync | Master use | U.S. theatrical performance right rides with the sync | | Existing record replayed by session musicians | Sync (and mechanical, if audio-only release) | None — 17 U.S.C. § 114(b) | Right-of-publicity check if a distinctive voice is imitated | | Soundtrack album track | Mechanical | Master use (audio-only) | Separate from the sync; reserve the option early | | Physical CD or download of a cover | Mechanical, § 115 or voluntary | You created it | Statutory rate at 37 C.F.R. Part 385 | | Interactive stream of an existing track | MLC blanket mechanical | Direct label license | PRO performance license | | Non-interactive webcast | PRO performance | SoundExchange statutory, 17 U.S.C. § 114(d)(2) | § 112(e) ephemeral license | | Terrestrial radio | PRO performance | None | — | | Sample of a record | Composition sample license | Master sample license | Both, or neither is worth having | | Live performance at a venue | Venue's PRO blanket | n/a | Grand rights if the use is dramatic | | Lyrics on screen or in print | Print license | n/a | — |

[ ] Check the § 115 gate before assuming a mechanical is compulsory. The compulsory license reaches only nondramatic musical works, previously distributed to the public in the United States under the copyright owner's authority, for audio-only distribution. 17 U.S.C. § 115. There is no compulsory license for anything married to picture — which is the entire explanation for the sync license's economics.
[ ] Check whether the arrangement you actually made fits § 115(a)(2). The compulsory license permits arrangement "to the extent necessary to conform it to the style or manner of interpretation of the performance involved" but bars changing the basic melody or fundamental character of the work. A faithful cover qualifies. A reharmonization, a translated lyric, a mashup, or a rap verse over the changes does not.
[ ] Confirm the U.S. theatrical performance right is expressly granted. U.S. exhibitors hold no PRO blanket covering film music, a consequence of Alden-Rochelle, Inc. v. ASCAP, 80 F. Supp. 888 (S.D.N.Y. 1948). Outside the United States, exhibitors are licensed locally and those royalties reach the writer through your cue sheet. A license silent on the point is ambiguous in the expensive direction.
[ ] Verify every "royalty-free," "public domain," and "Creative Commons" claim. Library licenses carry broadcast, paid-media, and territory limits. A public-domain composition does not make a 1958 recording of it free. A NonCommercial or NoDerivatives condition will not survive contact with an advertising use.

Phase 5 — Quote, and cage the MFN clause

[ ] Send one complete quote request per cue, containing all eleven specification fields, plus three questions: whether writer approval is required and its turnaround, whether U.S. theatrical performance rights are included, and what percentage the licensor controls with co-publishers identified.
[ ] Send the composition and master requests within a day of each other, so neither side can wait on the other's number.
[ ] Assume most favored nations applies and ask about it on the first call. MFN means whatever one rights holder is paid, the other gets. Negotiate the master down from $6,000 to $4,000 and the publisher's $6,000 does not fall — your $4,000 rises.
[ ] Scope the MFN clause in writing to the corresponding master only. Carve out every other composition and master in the project, the original score, production and library music, soundtrack album rights, out-of-context promotional rights, merchandising, and any re-use or session payment.
- Trap. An unscoped MFN ratchets every cue in the picture to the price of the most expensive one. That is the mechanism by which a $95,000 music budget becomes $180,000.
[ ] Budget against the higher number, not the quoted one, until MFN is scoped and the writer approval question is answered.
[ ] Ask for a package discount. Eleven cues from four publishers is four relationships, and publishers and labels both discount volume.
[ ] Price a step deal where perpetuity is unaffordable. A defined term with a fixed, pre-priced option to expand to perpetuity spreads the cost and lets you buy perpetuity only for the cues that survive the edit.
- Trap. An unpriced option is not an option, and an option that reopens writer approval is only a right to ask again. Fix the expansion fee and disclaim further consent in the option itself.

Phase 6 — Negotiate and paper the sync and master pair

[ ] Get "irrevocable" into the grant and resist a licensor termination right. A sync license terminable for breach is terminable after the film is in fifty million homes, converting a fee dispute into an injunction risk.
[ ] If the licensor insists on termination, cap the consequence to future exploitation only, with no effect on copies already distributed.
[ ] Include the no-obligation clause: the licensee need not use the composition or release the picture and fully performs by paying the fee. Licensors rarely fight it once paid.
[ ] Take the soundtrack album option now. A sync license does not authorize a soundtrack record; that needs a mechanical on the composition plus a separate master license. Reserving the option costs almost nothing; buying it later is a fresh negotiation with a label that now sees a competing product.
[ ] Negotiate derivative pictures expressly if the project has sequel, series, or compilation potential. Licensors increasingly grant "the entire Picture" precisely so that anything else is a new fee.
[ ] Say out loud, in the license, anything your editor intends to do to the track — reverse it, pitch it, chop it, have players replay a section. Standard forms bar alteration of the lyric or the fundamental character of the composition.
[ ] For a game, add the three game terms: all platforms including those not yet released; authority to adapt and rearrange if the score is dynamic; and an express streamer carve-out permitting end-user gameplay content and barring content-identification claims against it.
[ ] For advertising, enumerate the media and price the renewals up front, add category exclusivity if the client wants it, and treat right of publicity as a separate clearance. Deliberate vocal imitation is its own claim notwithstanding a valid composition license. Midler v. Ford Motor Co., 849 F.2d 460 (9th Cir. 1988); Waits v. Frito-Lay, Inc., 978 F.2d 1093 (9th Cir. 1992). Run it through Clearing and Licensing Name, Image, and Likeness and the NIL Clearance Checklist.
[ ] Where a campaign creates a repeating audio signature the brand intends to own, take an assignment or perpetual exclusive grant and consider registering the sound as a mark. See Color, Sound, Scent, and Motion; on the grant-versus-transfer distinction these agreements blur constantly, see Assignments vs. Licenses.
[ ] Obtain a content-identification allowlist covenant. A valid worldwide license does not stop a fingerprint match. Require the licensor to allowlist the picture and your channels within ten business days of written request and to release any claim already asserted, for the whole term.

Phase 7 — Clear the sample, or replay it

[ ] Prepare a sample use description before writing to anyone. Source work and recording with ISWC and ISRC; exact source timecode to the tenth of a second; placement in your track; number of repetitions and cumulative duration; what was done to it (pitch, tempo, filtering, chopping, layering, reversal); which elements are audible; whether the sample is the hook or an ornament.
[ ] Send a sample-only bounce, the finished track, and the full lyrics. Publishers clear lyrics, and a refusal on content grounds is common, absolute, and unreviewable.
[ ] Approach both owners in parallel. Budget two to six weeks for a major label sample desk, three to eight for a major publisher, eight to sixteen for an estate or foreign society, and indefinite for a self-administered writer who does not check email.
[ ] Expect structurally different asks. The master owner wants money — a flat buyout, a rollover advance stepping up at unit thresholds, or a point or two of the artist royalty base. The publisher wants ownership — commonly 15% to 50% of the new composition, occasionally 100% where the sample is the song.
[ ] Convert any granted publishing share into an income interest with no administration rights. A sampled publisher holding unrestricted co-ownership can license your song to anyone, including a competitor's advertisement, subject only to a duty to account.
[ ] On a rollover, define the streams-to-units conversion and cap it, or convert to a running royalty above a stated threshold.
[ ] If the master is refused but the composition is available, replay it. Section 114(b) limits the recording owner's rights to the actual fixed sounds and expressly permits an independent fixation that imitates or simulates them. Budget $1,500 to $8,000 for a small session; use a signatory payroll service if you are working under the AFM agreements.
- Trap. The replay must be genuinely independent, and § 114(b) does nothing about the right of publicity if it reproduces a distinctive singer's voice. See Your Face Is Not Public Domain.
[ ] Treat silence as refusal. Escalate once in writing to a named executive with a deadline, then decide. Section 115 does not rescue you: the compulsory mechanical covers faithful audio-only renditions of the whole song and bars changing its fundamental character. § 115(a)(2).
[ ] If you must rewrite around it, commission a musicologist report before release. Building blocks — chord progressions, standard rhythms, conventional figures — belong to everyone, Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, 952 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2020) (en banc); Gray v. Hudson, 28 F.4th 87 (9th Cir. 2022), but copying the arrangement of unprotectable elements remains actionable. Retain through counsel. Reports run $2,500 to $7,500 in five to fifteen business days and, unlike most pre-release diligence, are usable at trial. See Proving Copyright Infringement and the Evidence and Expert Witness Toolkit.
[ ] If you rely on fair use, document it before release. Work and memorialize the four factors using Running a Fair Use Analysis and the Fair Use Risk Assessment Checklist. Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, 598 U.S. 508 (2023), asks whether the copying shared the original's purpose and whether it was justified; a sample used as raw musical material in a competing commercial record is a hard case. See Fair Use After Warhol.
[ ] Do not build a release plan on de minimis. Whether the defense exists for sound recordings at all is a venue question — Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films, 410 F.3d 792, 801 (6th Cir. 2005), says no; VMG Salsoul, LLC v. Ciccone, 824 F.3d 871 (9th Cir. 2016), says yes — and you do not pick the venue.
[ ] Never accept a retroactive license from one co-owner as a fix. A co-owner's retroactive license cannot extinguish another co-owner's accrued infringement claim. Davis v. Blige, 505 F.3d 90, 104-05 (2d Cir. 2007).

Ninth Ward Sound, cue 11: the Delacroix Brass Kings master cleared at a $6,000 flat buyout. The composition's two surviving co-writers asked 30% of "Levee Sunday," reduced to 22% as a pure income interest with no administration rights, papered on 4 March 2026 — five weeks before lock, with a replay session held in reserve.

Phase 8 — Mechanicals

[ ] Take a voluntary mechanical rather than invoking § 115's compulsory machinery unless you have a specific reason not to. Voluntary licenses issue at or near the statutory rate from the publisher or an agent, without the notice and monthly accounting burden.
[ ] Confirm the current statutory rate before you quote it. The Phonorecords IV settlement raised the physical and permanent-download rate to 12 cents per song, or 2.31 cents per minute of playing time, whichever is greater, effective 1 January 2023, with annual inflation adjustments since. Ringtones remain at 24 cents. The operative figures live at 37 C.F.R. Part 385; read the current subpart, do not quote from memory.
[ ] If you do take the individual compulsory license, docket all four obligations: serve the notice of intention under 17 U.S.C. § 115(b); pay and report monthly on or before the twentieth day of each month, § 115(c)(2)(I); deliver an annual statement of account certified by a CPA under 37 C.F.R. Part 210; and cure any default within thirty days of written notice or the license terminates automatically and every copy already made becomes infringing, § 115(c)(6).
[ ] Do not assume the MLC blanket covers you. The blanket license created by 17 U.S.C. § 115(d) covers digital permanent downloads, limited downloads, and interactive streams. It does not cover physical product, it does not cover sync, and it does not cover the performance right.
[ ] Reduce the soundtrack mechanical to a written license naming the album, the configurations, and the unit accounting, and reconcile the rate against any controlled composition clause in the artist's recording agreement, which customarily pays 75% of minimum statutory, caps at ten songs per album, and is often frozen at a rate from years ago.
[ ] For a small physical run, use a per-song mechanical service rather than negotiating eleven licenses. Statutory royalty plus a modest per-song processing fee, issued in days.

Ninth Ward Sound: nine soundtrack tracks, an initial pressing of 1,000 CDs plus downloads, mechanicals taken voluntarily at the then-current statutory rate; total mechanical exposure under $1,300 on the initial run — a rounding error against a $95,000 music budget, and the single most commonly forgotten license in a documentary.

Phase 9 — Performance, cue sheets, and SoundExchange

[ ] Prepare the cue sheet from the delivered picture, not the rough cut. Every cue: title, composers with PRO and share, publishers with PRO and share, duration to the second, and use type — BI (background instrumental), BV (background vocal), VI or VV (visual instrumental or vocal), MT (main title), ET (end title).
- Why. Broadcasters and foreign societies pay composition performance royalties off the cue sheet. No cue sheet, no payment, and the person who goes unpaid is the songwriter who licensed to you in good faith.
[ ] File within 30 days of first exhibition or broadcast. Foreign societies pay on a lag measured from filing. A late cue sheet is money lost, not deferred.
[ ] Confirm in writing which party files it. The production company prepares; the distributor or broadcaster files. Both routinely assume the other did.
[ ] Include the original score. Composers are paid from the same document.
[ ] Re-issue the cue sheet after any re-cut, and notify the distributor. Durations must match what shipped.
[ ] Register the featured artist and the sound recording owner with SoundExchange. The statutory digital performance royalty is allocated by force of statute — 50% to the recording owner, 45% to the featured artist, 2.5% each to funds for non-featured musicians and vocalists. 17 U.S.C. § 114(g)(2).
[ ] File the producer letters of direction with SoundExchange so producers, mixers, and engineers are paid from the artist share directly under § 114(g)(5), rather than depending on the artist to remit.
[ ] Affiliate every writer with a PRO and form a publishing entity, even a single-member one. Writers who never form a publisher forfeit the publisher's share of performance income to nobody's benefit.
[ ] For a venue, event, or installation, confirm blanket licenses from all four PROs. Section 110(5) exempts small establishments' receipt of ordinary broadcasts, but it does not touch live performance, DJs, or a curated consumer streaming account used commercially.

Ninth Ward Sound, cue 6, as filed: "Careless Weather" — Composers: J. Antrim (ASCAP, 50%), R. Ossa (BMI, 50%) — Publishers: Bellhouse Songs (ASCAP, 50%), Kettle Row Music (BMI, 50%) — Duration 1:26 — Use: BV. One line, eleven foreign territories, a real payment.

Phase 10 — Registration and royalty setup

[ ] Register every composition and every sound recording you own, on release. Under 17 U.S.C. § 412, statutory damages and attorney's fees are unavailable unless registration preceded the infringement or followed first publication within three months, and no action may be instituted until the Office acts on the application, Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. 296 (2019).

| Route | Covers | Fee | | --- | --- | --- | | Single Application | One work, one author and claimant, not made for hire | $45 | | Standard Application | Everything else, including joint works and works made for hire | $65 | | GRAM (Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music) | Up to 20 musical works, or up to 20 sound recordings with the works embodied in them, same album, same claimant — 37 C.F.R. § 202.4; Circular 73A | $85 | | GRUW (Group Registration of Unpublished Works) | Up to 10 unpublished works of the same type, same claimant | $85 | | Special handling | Expedited examination, on top of the above | $800 |

[ ] Confirm the current fee schedule at 37 C.F.R. § 201.3 before you invoice a client. The figures move.
[ ] Disclose cleared samples as preexisting material and limit the claim to your new authorship. A registration with a known material inaccuracy is vulnerable under 17 U.S.C. § 411(b), and the safe harbor turns on the applicant's knowledge of law as well as fact. Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P., 595 U.S. 178 (2022). Deposit and claim mechanics are in Registering a Copyright and the Copyright Registration Checklist; what the certificate is actually worth is in What Copyright Registration Actually Buys You.
[ ] Register every composition with the MLC. Registration is free, splits must total exactly 100%, and a song registered at 95% holds the missing 5% in suspense indefinitely.
[ ] Register the recordings with ISRCs too. Composition registration alone does not match; without ISRCs, matching falls back on title-and-artist string comparison, which fails on remixes, features, and live versions.
[ ] Make the splits identical across the Copyright Office, the MLC, and the PROs. Three databases disagreeing about one song is how royalties end up in suspense.
[ ] Record any copyright transfer with the Copyright Office under 17 U.S.C. § 205, including a sample settlement that conveys a publishing interest. Recordation gives constructive notice and fixes priority.
[ ] Check the MLC's unclaimed works portal periodically. It is searchable, and money sits there.
[ ] Docket the whole set. Registration windows, option exercise dates, term expirations, and renewal cycles all belong on the same calendar — see Docketing Deadlines.

Phase 11 — E&O, indemnity, and delivery

[ ] Get a warranty that names the controlled percentage and schedules the co-owners. Push for authority to contract; ownership or control of a stated percentage with all co-owners and shares listed on a schedule; a statement of whether the non-dramatic performance right is granted or must be licensed from a PRO; and non-infringement of the composition as delivered, excluding your own material, your combinations, and unauthorized modifications.
[ ] Get "or alleged" into the indemnity. Defense costs accrue before anyone proves a breach, and the indemnity should expressly reach reasonable attorneys' fees.
[ ] Soften the notice condition: failure to give prompt notice relieves the indemnifying party only to the extent of actual material prejudice.
[ ] Carve indemnification and IP infringement out of the liability cap. A $6,000 cap against a $2.4 million picture is a refund, not risk allocation.
- Trap. A liability cap that does not exclude indemnification silently guts the indemnity. Read the warranty, the indemnity, and the cap as one instrument, every time.
[ ] Bind media liability (errors and omissions) coverage at $1 million per claim and $3 million aggregate, three-year term, $10,000 to $25,000 retention. A documentary policy commonly runs $4,000 to $15,000; scripted and advertising risks price higher.
[ ] Reconcile the licenses against the cue sheet before you send the application, not after. Underwriters read the clearance file and find the gaps. A gap found in underwriting costs two weeks; the same gap found by a distributor's clearance counsel at delivery becomes a holdback against your delivery payment.
[ ] Disclose every known claim and every fair use reliance. Known claims are excluded from coverage, and underwriters will insure a documented fair use position while refusing an undocumented one.
[ ] Tell the broker about any prior screening. Claims-made policies have retroactive dates, and a policy bound after a festival screening may exclude it.
[ ] Flow the insurance requirement downstream to the music supervisor, post house, and co-producers: same limits, additional insured status for you and your licensees and assigns, primary and non-contributory, waiver of subrogation, thirty days' notice of cancellation, certificate delivered before services begin.
[ ] Assemble the delivery binder: the cue sheet in the distributor's required format; every executed sync, master, mechanical, and sample license; the rights map showing 100% coverage per cue; split sheets, producer assignments, and performer releases; copyright registration receipts; the musicologist report if one exists; the documented fair use analysis if one exists; the certificate of insurance; and a signed clearance certification.
[ ] Deliver it 45 days before the delivery date, or whatever the sales agency agreement actually requires. Read the date, do not assume it.
[ ] If something surfaces after release, work it in order: establish the facts before writing to anyone; check the claimant's registration date, because late registration takes statutory damages and fees off the table under § 412; notice your insurer on the letter, not on the complaint; clear the whole work, not one co-owner; and paper the settlement as a going-forward license with a release attached, then fix the registrations. Demand mechanics are in Sending an Effective Cease-and-Desist Letter; escalation runs through the Copyright Enforcement Toolkit and, at filing, Filing a Copyright Infringement Complaint in Federal Court with its complaint checklist.

Common Mistakes

Clearing one copyright and stopping. "We licensed the song" is an incomplete sentence. Ask which copyright, from whom, for which territory, term, and media.
Licensing a fraction and calling it cleared. A license from the 50% owner leaves you infringing as to the other 50%.
Starting after picture lock. Leverage decays to zero the moment you cannot walk away. Every catastrophic music cost traces to a request that arrived too late.
Accepting an unscoped MFN clause. It ratchets the whole project to the price of the most expensive cue, silently.
Taking a festival license with no priced option to expand. Cheap now, unaffordable at exactly the moment a streamer makes an offer.
Assuming the MLC blanket, a platform music library, or a Content ID release is clearance. Each covers one narrow thing. A platform library licenses organic posts on that platform by that account — not a paid ad, a client deliverable, a conference reel, or a website embed. The platform layer is explained in The DMCA Safe Harbor and the DMCA Takedown Notice Checklist.
Treating a Content ID claim as an adjudication. No court has ruled, no fair use analysis has occurred, and no one has sworn to anything under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A)(vi).
Forgetting the soundtrack album. The sync license does not cover it, and the option is nearly free at signature.
Skipping the cue sheet. It is not paperwork. It is the songwriter's paycheck, and failing to file it is the quietest way to breach the deal you just negotiated.
Registering on discovery instead of on release. Section 412 closes quietly, and with it most of the settlement value of any future claim.
Relying on an implied license, a handshake, or a co-owner's retroactive fix. Davis v. Blige forecloses the last one outright.
Letting the split sheet wait until after the session. Four minutes in the room replaces a four-year joint authorship fight and answers the sample negotiation you have not had yet.

Deadlines at a Glance

| Clock | Length | Authority or source | | --- | --- | --- | | Register a published work to preserve statutory damages and fees | Before infringement begins, or within 3 months of first publication | 17 U.S.C. § 412 | | File a copyright infringement action | Only after the Copyright Office acts on the application | Fourth Estate, 586 U.S. 296 (2019) | | Copyright limitations period | 3 years from accrual; no separate damages cap on a timely discovery-rule claim | 17 U.S.C. § 507(b); Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy, 601 U.S. 366 (2024) | | § 115 notice of intention (individual compulsory license) | Before distributing phonorecords, per the statutory timing | 17 U.S.C. § 115(b) | | § 115 monthly royalty and statement of account | On or before the 20th day of each month | 17 U.S.C. § 115(c)(2)(I) | | § 115 annual statement of account, CPA-certified | After fiscal year end, per regulation | 37 C.F.R. Part 210 | | Cure a § 115 default before automatic termination | 30 days from written notice | 17 U.S.C. § 115(c)(6) | | Termination of transfer notice, post-1977 grants | Served 2 to 10 years before the effective date; recorded before it; 5-year window opening at year 35 | 17 U.S.C. § 203(a)(3)-(4) | | Termination of transfer, pre-1978 grants | 5-year window opening 56 years from copyright | 17 U.S.C. § 304(c) | | Cue sheet filing | Within 30 days of first exhibition or broadcast | Industry practice; distributor delivery schedules | | Content-identification allowlist by licensor | 10 business days from written request | Contractual — put it in the license | | Festival-to-distribution option exercise | Commonly 24 months from the effective date | Contractual — price it at signature | | Chain-of-title package to the sales agent | Commonly 45 days before delivery | Contractual — read the delivery schedule | | E&O bind from a complete application | 2 to 4 weeks | Underwriting practice | | DMCA counter-notice restoration window | 10 to 14 business days | 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(2)(C) |