Track Requests - Behind the Scenes

The issues surrounding music rights that were highlighted at this year's Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter and the updated Music in Sport Guidance for Athletes from the International Olympic Committee, have reinforced the importance of securing a license for the track(s) you want to use before you commit to using the music in your routine.

Our large and growing pre-cleared catalogue of tracks available for instant license to accompany your routine is the ideal path - it is cost effective, no additional rightholder approvals are needed so licenses are available instantly upon payment, and they come with an official track download that you can edit.

If, however, you are in a situation where you want to use a track that is not available for instant licensing, we are also happy to help you.

Here is an inside look at what happens after you create a track request: 

Research 

If you are familiar with our recent blog: Solving Music Rights: The World's Biggest Jigsaw Puzzle you may be aware of the complexities of music rights and how much information needs to be brought together just to license one song.

The license request process involves several steps:

• Initial Research: The deals we have done so far have resulted in information on 50M+ copyrights supplied by rightholders into our Rights Management Database (RMD), which gives us a big advantage - our system automatically seeks to match the requested music with the data in our system.

• Connecting Ownership:  Where the songs requested don’t appear or are missing ownership information in our database, the team gets to work manually finding and connecting the necessary information across different databases to piece together the ownership rights.

• Data Gaps: We occasionally find that there is no ownership data available for a track and will reach out to artists or songwriters for more information, where possible.

Contacting Rightsholders

Once the ownership is established, we reach out to the identified rightsholders for confirmation of ownership, metadata delivery, and to request a license. The way we approach these rightsholders and the information needed from them will differ depending on their relationship with ClicknClear.

• Rightsholders we have signed: If a rightsholder is signed but the ownership data is missing, we can quickly confirm ownership with them and request metadata deliveries when needed. 

• Rightsholders we have not yet signed: Some rightsholders only allow one-off licensing, which typically involves a higher fee, and takes more time.

The process doesn't just stop at rightsholders. Often their contracts with artists and writers stipulate that the artist or writer must have approval of each use made of their music.

The resulting chains of communication can considerably add to the time taken for each request to be processed by the record label and / or music publisher so when a request is made for a song that isn’t instantly cleared, it is not possible to provide a guaranteed timeline to get a response.

Potential Issues

During this process, there are other issues that can delay or prevent a successful license:

• Music can be represented by different organisations in different countries meaning more people are involved in the chain.

• Some music may have conflicting or missing ownership data which needs to be cleared up by the rightsholders involved. This presents additional challenges to acquiring a licence for an athlete performing in multiple territories.

• Some music may be the subject of a legal dispute and therefore may not be possible to license.

• The song requested may itself be an unlicensed cover or remix, meaning that they were created without permission of the original rightsholders, leading to a license typically not being possible to secure.

• Rightsholders may not respond to requests within the time needed, or at all. 

• Some recording artists and songwriters are more sensitive to how and when their tracks are used - often the very popular ones. We will still reach out to them however, they can decline these requests, or may request a substantial fee. Our system automatically shows you whether the song you requested involves an artist or writer that can be difficult to clear as you are making the request, so you can rethink your choices (if you want) as early in the process as possible.

Our team always tries their best in these circumstances to seek approvals, but it is not always possible, and ultimately it is up to each music rightsholder as to whether or not they will allow a license of a song in each case.

Negotiations

Once a request has been made with a rightsholder, the next step is negotiation.  

When rightsholders are only interested in a one-off license we must negotiate a fee with them, and agree on an acceptable form of license agreement with each of them.This may also involve some back and forth with the rightsholder, and also the person who has made the request. Fees can span a large range ($100-$10,000+) and often involve conditions such as Most Favoured Nation (MFN). MFN stipulates that the rightsholder asking for MFN receives terms at least as favourable as any other party involved in the same deal. 

Approval is typically needed from the recording artist and 100% of the publishing owners before a track can be licensed, so:

• A rightsholder requiring the MFN condition can significantly impact the final fee.

• Even if one rightsholder, representing only a tiny fraction of the ownership of the song, says ‘no’, that is a showstopper - the song can’t be licensed.

Overview

Piecing together the complete ownership rights across both the master and publishing sides can be complex, with a variety of hurdles, which can ultimately lead to substantial license fees, significant delays in securing your license, or even denial of use. 

Our expert team always does everything they can to get licenses for tracks you request, but it is always a good idea to have a strong ‘Plan B’ from our pre-cleared catalogue of instantly available music for each track you want to use!