Licensing & Sync Clearance
Your lawyer gets your music placed in media for money, and clears other people's music and samples you want to use legally.
What This Covers
Licensing is the paperwork behind a placement — when a film, TV show, game, ad, or trailer wants your record in a scene. It runs both directions: getting your music into other people's media for money, and getting theirs safely into yours. Every recording is really two rights — the composition (the written song) and the master (the actual recording) — so a placement usually needs both a sync license and a master use license. It also covers samples, interpolations, cover mechanicals, and sync library deals, where one question keeps returning: rent your music, or accidentally sell it?
Your lawyer works both lanes. When someone wants your song, your lawyer negotiates the fee, term, territory, media, and exclusivity, and reads the grant language so a broad "in perpetuity, all media" buyout doesn't quietly take rights you meant to keep. When you want someone else's song or sample, your lawyer helps find who actually owns it, secure written permission, and settle the splits before you release.
Why It Matters to You
A single placement can pay more in one check than a year of playlist royalties, and supervisors love independent artists because we tend to own our masters and can clear a song in days. That ownership is real leverage — but only when you understand what each license actually grants. Take one fee for "sync" and you may have handed over your master for free.
The other side is protection. Clear samples and interpolations before you release, not after: courts have held even tiny samples can require permission, and an uncleared track can get pulled and expose you to a lawsuit. Getting the splits and paperwork right up front — with a lawyer's eyes on the deals that matter — costs far less than fixing one gone wrong.
The Services We Offer
The Licensing & Sync Clearance services Done Deal Digital offers, performed by a licensed attorney you engage directly.
Sync Licensing (Film/TV/Games/Ads)
Your lawyer negotiates and papers the deal when a show, game, or commercial wants to use your song.
Master Use Licenses
Your lawyer handles the separate license needed to use your actual recording (not just the song) in a placement.
Sample Clearance
Your lawyer gets written permission and negotiates the splits when you use a piece of someone else's recording.
Interpolation & Cover Licensing
Your lawyer secures the rights when you re-sing or re-play part of another writer's song.
Mechanical Licenses for Covers
Your lawyer obtains the mechanical license that lets you legally release your cover of someone else's song (digital releases via the MLC blanket license; physical via a song-by-song license at the statutory rate, 13.1¢ in 2026).
Music Library & Catalog Licensing Terms
Your lawyer reviews or drafts the terms when you place music with a sync library or license your catalog out.
Prefer to learn it yourself first? Get the Licensing & Sync Clearance guide — $39 →
Start With a Free, No-Pressure Intro
Tell us what you're dealing with - a contract, a copyright, a name dispute, a bad deal - and we'll connect you with the right music lawyer. You'll engage and pay the attorney directly under their own agreement. Done Deal Digital is not a law firm and never collects or shares in any legal fee.
Request a Music Lawyer →Important Legal Notice
DONE DEAL DIGITAL IS NOT A LAW FIRM and does not provide legal advice or legal services. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
The legal services described here are provided solely by an independent attorney licensed in California, whom Done Deal Digital connects clients with. Done Deal Digital does not employ, supervise, or control that attorney and is not responsible for the legal services provided.
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