What does owning your master recordings mean?

As an artist, owning your masters gives you the legal rights to freely appropriate and maximize your money-making opportunities. With a master recording, you can license the recording to third parties, like TV shows, films, commercials or even for sampling use by other artists.

Who owns the master recording of a song?

Who owns the Master Rights? The owner of the master rights is usually whoever finances the recording. Typically, this is the record label, unless you’re dealing with an unsigned artist. In this case the artist owns the master rights.

What are master recordings stored on?

Master recordings (usually called just “masters”) can be made on discs, tapes, and computer data storage formats.

Who owns the rights to a sound recording?

maker
Copyright in sound recordings is generally owned by the ‘maker’ of the sound recording. The term ‘maker’ usually refers to the person who owns the equipment the recording was made on, such as the production company, studio, or record label.

What happens if you don’t own your masters?

Speaking of his relationship with the music business, Prince said, “If you don’t own your masters, the master owns you.” Prince’s relationship with the music industry can be summed up in a quote he gave to Rolling Stone in 1996: “If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.”

Does Rihanna own her masters?

In a cover story for the April issue of Vogue, Abby Aguirre reports that after she released her last album in 2012, Rihanna left her old label and acquired the masters to all of her previous recordings. This is an incredible business move for star who also founded her own label imprint under her new home RocNation.

Do I own my masters?

In many traditional record deals, an artist signs away their master rights — that is, the rights to their recordings — to a record label either for a set period of time or the length of the copyright. And any recordings made by the artist under the contract are owned by the label — possibly forever.

Is mastering necessary?

Mastering is the final step of the production process. Mastering is also the final stage of quality control for your music. It’s the last chance to make sure there are no errors or technical issues with your track before releasing it to the world. That’s why mastering is such a crucial step in the production process.

What is the point of mastering?

Mastering is the final step of audio post-production. The purpose of mastering is to balance the sonic elements of a stereo mix and optimize playback across all systems and media formats. Traditionally, mastering is done using tools like equalization, compression, limiting and stereo enhancement.

What are master rights?

In many traditional record deals, an artist signs away their master rights — that is, the rights to their recordings — to a record label either for a set period of time or the length of the copyright. In return, the label provides the artist with an advance that’s recoupable against the artist’s royalties.

How long do performers rights last?

The protection of performer’s rights is 50 years from the end of the year in which the performance was fixed or it took place.

Does Chris Brown own his own masters?

The 29-year-old singer just signed a new deal with RCA records and will released his new album entitled Indigo under the new deal. This deal also allows Brown to be the sole owner of his masters with the hopes of making his music even better.

What are mastermaster recordings and why are they important?

Master recordings are a crucial part of an artist’s journey and alternatives such as sharing revenue from streaming could be the difference between you maintaining your masters and a record label holding onto them.

What does it mean when a record label owns the Master?

Record labels Usually, a recording agreement states that the label will own all master recordings recorded by the artist during the term of the agreement.

Do you own your master rights to your record deals?

Owning your master rights is one record deal point you can’t afford to ignore. For decades, artists who signed a record deal with a label were expected to turn over the master rights to their sound recordings – the actual studio/live recordings of their material. This is often confused with general song copyright ownership.

Should artists own their master records?

Common sense and matters of principle usually cause most independent artists to feel they should own their masters because they’re the ones who contributed the performance and are often paying for the recordings. But, oftentimes, other owners can be involved because master ownership can vary based on law as well as contract.