We get it—documentation is the least exciting part of the music industry. But you know what’s worse? Receiving claims that compromise the distribution and availability of your music catalog.

To ensure complete documentation coverage for your catalog, we’ve prepared this article detailing each type of document and what it covers.

Types of Contracts Needed for Digital Music Distribution:

Each song originates from a composition, and each composition has a copyright that must be registered with the copyright office of the country where it was created.

If the song we want to distribute is not an original composition but a cover of a third party’s composition, our song is a cover. To distribute a cover, it is necessary to have a license for it.

If a composition has more than one composer, these composers must divide the authorship of the composition into percentages that total 100%. This is documented in a document called a Composition Royalty Split Agreement (or Split Sheet).

📹 Informative Video:

Each song we distribute is an audio file, know as Master Recording.

This audio file must be unique and registered with a Collective Management Organization (CMO), government office, or rights management company related to Master Recordings.

The registration includes the executive producers, performers, and/or rights holders. The ISRC code of the Master Recording must also be specified in the document.

The office that offers this registration varies by country, so we recommend researching the process specific to your country.

Master Recording Registration offices of certain countries:

If the person or company distributing a song is not the original rights holder of the Master Recording, they must have a distribution license for the Master Recording.

This document should specify the licensor (the person or company distributing the release) and the licensee (the rights holder of the phonogram granting the license). The document should also mention the territory of the license, the duration of the license, and detail the phonograms included in the license, including the song name, artist name, and ISRC codes of the Master Recording.

Each artist performing a distributed track is a brand with a name and image. When distributing music to an artist’s digital platform profiles, the artist’s brand (name and image) is used, so it is necessary to have a trademark registration for the artist.

The trademark registration is done at the Intellectual Property or Trademark office of each country. The duration and cost of the process vary by country. The validity period of the trademark registration also differs from country to country.

If a song features guest artists, we need an image usage license from each artist. This is also required if the song is in the public domain.

Whether we purchase a beat from an online service or directly from a beatmaker, there are usually two types of licenses: exclusive and non-exclusive licenses for the beat.

An exclusive license grants you sole ownership of the beat, meaning once you buy it, the producer cannot sell it to anyone else. This option is perfect for artists looking for a unique sound that won’t be heard or re-used elsewhere.

For professional purposes, it is highly preferable to have an exclusive license for the beat of our song, as this license guarantees that our song will be the only one in the world allowed to use this beat.

Non-exclusive Licenses are more affordable but allow the producer to sell the same beat to multiple artists. It’s an ideal choice for those working on a tight budget or who do not mind sharing the instrumental with others.

When distributing tracks with samples, even if they are royalty-free, Random Sounds (or your distributor) may request you a certified license for these samples.

Why? Because our fraud-prevention software integrates with third-party tools (like Pex and ACRCloud) to analyze every uploaded track comparing it with a massive database of copyrighted music to detect matching audio and thus requesting additional inf.

If your track contains any third party samples in the beat that you have used, the explicit permission from the original rights holder(s) is needed before the new track can be distributed, otherwise you are committing copyright infringement.

Services like Splice, typically offer these loops/beats as royalty-free samples, which means you are allowed to commercially exploit it without any issues.

Splice offers a free tool to export a Proof of License PDF file of your purchased sounds within their app.

This contract grants the distributor the rights to distribute the master’s music on digital platforms. It defines the duration, territories, payments, and commissions, while the rights holder (record label or artist) retains ownership of the recording rights.

In a recording agreement between a record label and one or more artists involved, it is established how the royalties generated by the master will be divided among the parties involved, such as the rights holder, producers, and artists, specifying percentages, payment methods, and deadlines.

To manage contracts between parties, we recommend working with our partners The Flou, Contract Software for Music & Entertainment.