Commercial Music Sync Licensing

Sync licensing - using commercial music in films, adverts, video games or other audio-visual productions

If you wish to use commercially released music in a production or product, you must first receive approval from the rights holders and agree the fee.

Each usage is looked at on a case-by-case basis. We work on behalf of the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) who hold many of the mandates for sync.

Where the sync mandate is held by MCPS we can manage this process for you and provide a licence when approval is received. Where MCPS do not hold the mandate we can still help to put you in touch with the rights holders for you to license directly. Please contact us with your enquiry and we will help you begin this process.

Prior approval process

You need to inform us which track you wish to use.

If the track is controlled by a member that has not granted a mandate to MCPS, we will inform you which member you need to get permission from and give you the contact details for that member.

If the track is owned by a member that has granted a mandate to MCPS, we will contact the member with details of your request and attempt to obtain approval on your behalf and agree acceptable licensing terms with the member.

The member will either approve or reject the use of their music in your production and we will inform you of their decision. If the request has been successful, we will confirm the licence fee.

After you have confirmed you still intend to use the work, we will raise an invoice. Once the invoice has been paid, we will issue you with a licence to use the work under the terms approved.

Rates and costs

All rates are negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Send us an enquiry about the track that you would like to use and how you wish to use it.

Other rights

You must also get permission to use the Sound Recording from the company that owns it - usually a record company.  PPL can help put you in touch with the correct record company.

If you are hosting content online and have pre-cleared the mechanical rights separately, you may also require a Performing Right Online Licence (PROL) to cover the communication to the public of our members work through digital services.