What does it mean when an artist owns their masters?

A “master” is the jargon used to refer to the underlying rights to a song. Put simply, controlling the master rights essentially means you have control over what is done with the song or album, full stop. When record labels are valued and sold, their ownership of masters comes into play.

How do master recordings make money?

They rely on signing talent to the label to grow and make money. Labels win when the artist’s wins, and recording agreements are what allow an artist and a label to work together….It comes from things like:

• streams.
• sales.
• social media monetization.
• publishing.
• sync licensing.
• touring.
• merch.

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.

How do record labels take advantage of artists?

As the maker of music, musicians are the workers who create most value in the music industry. However, instead of paying musicians a wage as workers, record labels treat them as independent contractors. In a record contract, recording artists exchange their copyrights for an advance on sales.

Why is it important to own your masters?

Why is it important to own my masters? 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.

Do any artists own their masters?

In an ideal world, an artist will aim to retain ownership to his/her masters. If an artist is signing to a small independent label, the small independent label may want to (down the line) sell its catalogue of master recordings. When record labels are sold their ownership of masters and their value comes into play.

What are master recordings?

In the music business, a master recording is the official original recording of a song, sound or performance. Also referred to as “masters”, it is the source from which all the later copies are made.

Why are master recordings important?

Why don t artists own their masters?

The short answer is: Whoever owns the rights to the master recording gets to control the money that’s made from selling copies of it. If you don’t own the master recording, you can’t sell copies of it yourself, and you don’t control the proceeds at all.