The sound recording of a musical work is a separate copyright component to the musical work itself. This means that the rights in the sound recording are not automatically controlled by a music collecting society just because the music is. In fact this is usually not the case.
Screenrights has identified three main types of music used in film and television. This may help you ascertain whether you have a claim to royalties for sound recordings of music in film and television.
The three types are:
- Commercial music (such as pop songs)
Copyright in the sound recordings of these works tend to be owned by record companies.
- Library music (also known as stock or production music)
Copyright in the sound recordings of these works tend to be owned by publishers.
- Commissioned music (or music specially commissioned by the producer for use in programs)
Copyright in sound recordings of commissioned music are owned by the producer who commissioned the music and paid for it to be recorded, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.
This means a producer (or the rightsholder in the film) will usually only be able to claim sound recording royalties if the film contains commissioned music. You will, however, need to check that you have not transferred the right to copy, communicate or retransmit the sound recording to another party in any agreements concerning the use of the film and the sound recordings of the commissioned music.