The most common rights transferred or licensed in the music business that relate to the musical work are all included in songwriters' and music publishers' copyrights.
The most common rights transferred or licensed in the music business that relate to a performance or the sound recording are all included in rights owners’ related (or neighboring) rights (simply rights under copyright law in common law countries).
Rights can generally be defined as the moral or legal entitlements that protect people or entities and their interests.
In the music industry, most, but not all, of those rights are granted under . But we’ll get into that further in the sections that follow.
What’s important to understand for now is that and can be used in different ways. And when they are, different rights come into play. Sometimes, that’s more than one right at the same time, and these can take on their own specific music industry or legal terms. We will explore all of these in detail, so keep reading.
The specifics of your rights will depend on where you live and where you create and your musical works and sound recordings. There are different legal traditions, and each country may have different laws and terminologies. All variations around the world cannot be covered on this platform.
What follows is an overview of the types of rights that exist in musical works, , sound recordings, and a identity and image, but specific rights questions can best be answered by a local expert.
There are different types of rights and legal and business terms that creators and should know. Click on the titles below to learn more about each one.
Image credit: Eric Ivar Persson, Parapix