Music Library vs Music Licensing Companies

[DesireInspires]

That's not necessary. I appreciate you chiming in, though...

LMFAO!

[RPaul]

What is the difference between a licensing company and a library?
(been wondering for a while...)

I'm not clear if you've gotten the sort of answer you've been looking for in the responses to this point, so I thought I'd toss in my two cents' worth (or maybe just a penny's worth since I make no claim to be an expert on this topic) ...

For music libraries, the term itself makes the meaning fairly clear in that they will have some "library" of music that they can make available to people and organizations needing music. This will at least include collecting songs and recordings of those songs, where the recordings of the songs will be used directly. The music library will also handle licensing, typically of both the recording and the song, though there may be some exceptions where, for example, the library might handle licensing the recording while working collaboratively with the publisher for the song or needing the client to work with the publisher directly. The specific exception case I'm thinking of is for cover songs, where maybe the publishers of the songs are open to sync licenses but the record companies who own the masters of the known recordings of the songs make licensing them cost-prohibitive, or aren't open to licensing some recordings at any price, thus making there be some market for cover versions that are more practical to license.

Still talking about music libraries, some libraries will do only exclusive deals for the material they represent, while others will do non-exclusive deals or both exclusive and non-exclusive deals depending on the specifics. Many libraries will also take all or part of the publishing of the songs they represent, while others may simply perform some sort of administrative publishing role that gives them a commission and allows them to represent the song while not actually owning the copyright.

One other differentiation worth mentioning at this point is with publishers. While many (most???) music libraries will be publishers, not all music publishers will be music libraries, despite their having a catalog of songs they represent. In particular, they may be representing the songs only, not the recordings of the songs, which would have to be licensed by the owner of the rights to those recordings. To use a concrete example, if you want to license Bob Dylan's song, "Blowin' in the Wind", you have to go to the publisher for the song (I believe it is Special Rider Music, though I think Warner administers for them). However, if you want to use my cover recording of it, you have to go to me.

As for music licensing companies, unless someone is using that term in some very specific context, it is a much more general term than music library or music publisher. For example, public performance rights for songs are licensed by performance rights organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SOCAN, PRS, etc. You can license mechanical rights (in order to release a cover recording of a song), depending on the specific song and territory, from the Harry Fox Agency, other similar organizations (in most countries you have to use a specific country-specific organization, which is sometimes, but not always, the same as the PRO), the publisher of the song, or another intermediary (e.g. I've gotten compulsory mechanical licensing notifications from streaming services for my songs through Music Reports). Music libraries are almost always music licensing companies, though not always music publishers. For example, Songtradr is a music licensing company and a non-exclusive music library, but they aren't a publisher. Rather, they make agreements with the publishers of the songs in their library to be able to license the songs (in addition to their agreements with the owners of the recordings to allow them to license the recordings). There are also various special purpose music licensing organizations, like CCLI who license charts and lyrics for church display in the Christian worship music market.

There are also some companies that I believe would be considered music licensing companies that aren't libraries or publishers, but rather do independent licensing, tracking down the various copyright owners and getting agreements together. While music supervisors often do this sort of thing, the type of company I'm talking about isn't necessarily a music supervisor, but might be hired by a music supervisor. But there can be gray areas there, too, as such companies may also serve as music libraries to a degree. I don't want to mention the name of a company of this type I was contacted by at one point, but they are in one of those gray areas, where they do represent some artists/writers regularly, but also seek out songs for music supervisors in cases where they don't already represent something (this is the context under which they contacted me at one point, specifically for my cover of "Time is on My Side").

So my general take is that a music licensing company can mean a whole bunch of different things, depending on context, and could be a music library, as well, though it doesn't have to be one.

Rick

[Susanstunes]

Rick,
This is great. Your in depth discussion here is very helpful to me. Things I hadn't seen before regarding this murky area of the music business. Thank you!
Susan