Music Industry Terminology FAQs

What is a P Line?

The P line is a field of data that may be reported to the MLC by a DSP. It represents the sound recording owner of the record. This may not necessarily be the party that has released or distributed the recording, and this party may change over time.

What Is The Label Name?

The label name is a field of data that may be reported to the MLC by a DSP. It represents the U.S. Releasing Party (in other words, the record label that released the recording into the marketplace).

What is a collective management organization (CMO)?

A CMO is an organization which manages the collective rights of its members. In the music industry, examples of CMOs are performing rights organizations, mechanical rights organizations and performers' rights organizations. When The MLC mentions CMOs, it is usually in the context of mechanical rights organizations based outside of the United States, such as MCPS in the U.K., AMCOS in Australia, or SACM in Mexico.

What is a sound recording?

A sound recording is the result of recording a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds. A sound recording may embody a musical work, but it is not the same as a musical work. Sometimes people refer to this as a track.

What is a songwriter, composer, or lyricist?

A songwriter is someone who applies their creative talent to the creation of musical works, writing the music and sometimes also the lyrics, usually in a popular music style (e.g., rock, country, hip hop, pop). A composer is someone who applies their creative talent to the creation of musical works, composing the music, usually in a classical or jazz musical style. A lyricist is someone who applies their creative talent to the creation of musical works, writing the lyrics across many styles of music, including musical theater.

A shorthand way of referring collectively to songwriters, composers, and lyricists is to refer to them as writers. Writers may be the sole creators of a musical work or may collaborate with others in its creation. A writer may also be a recording artist.

What is an interactive stream, permanent download, or a limited download?

Digital service providers may provide one or more of these types of user experiences to consumers of their services:

Interactive Stream: A digital transmission of a sound recording where the consumer has control over which sound recording to stream and in what order to stream it. An example of this is the user experience offered by Spotify and Apple Music.

Permanent Download: A digital transmission of a sound recording in the form of a download, where the consumer has unlimited control over how many times to access it. An example of this are the recordings available for download in the iTunes Store.

Limited Download: A digital transmission of a sound recording where the consumer has limited control over either the length of time or the number of times they can access it. An example of this are the recordings available for offline access on Spotify and Apple Music.

Non-Interactive Stream: A digital transmission of a sound recording where the consumer has limited control over which sound recording to stream, in what order it appears, and how many times to stream it, similar to a radio broadcast. An example of this is the user experience offered by Pandora Radio and SiriusXM.

What are mechanical licenses and royalties?

A mechanical license is permission to reproduce and distribute a musical work in the form of a physical or digital phonorecord. An example of a physical phonorecord is a sound recording on a CD or vinyl record. Examples of digital phonorecords are sound recordings delivered as interactive streams, limited downloads, or permanent downloads. If a musical work is protected by copyright law, its unauthorized reproduction and distribution is copyright infringement.

A mechanical license may be obtained through a voluntarily negotiated license between the party requesting the license and the party granting it, or through the use of a “compulsory” license. Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act establishes a compulsory license (sometimes also called a “statutory license”), and if certain conditions are met, it means that the party wishing to obtain a license is granted one as a matter of law, regardless of what the copyright owner wants, so long as they comply with the rules set forth in the law regarding the operation of the license. The law establishes eligibility requirements and obligations.

Mechanical licenses require the payment of mechanical royalties to the copyright owner or administrator of a musical work. In the case of a voluntarily negotiated license, the royalty rate is negotiated. In the case of a compulsory license, the rate is set by the Copyright Royalty Board (known as the CRB), a three-judge panel within the U.S. Library of Congress.

For more information on the compulsory mechanical license for making and distributing physical phonorecords, read the Copyright Office circular found at https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ73a.pdf.

What are public performance licenses and royalties?

A public performance license is permission to perform a work at a place open to the public or where a substantial number of people outside of a normal circle of family and friends is gathered. It includes transmitting or broadcasting the work, whether the members of the public are capable of receiving it in the same place, in separate places, at the same time, or at different times.

Public performance licenses for the performance of musical works are generally granted by performing rights organizations, like ASCAP, BMI, AllTrack, SESAC, and GMR, as blanket licenses. These organizations collect performance royalties from entities responsible for presenting the performance, such as radio stations, nightclubs, and digital service providers, and pay them on to songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers.

Public performance licenses for the performance of sound recordings via digital transmission are generally granted as compulsory licenses under Section 114 of the U.S. copyright law. These licenses are administered by SoundExchange, which also collects royalties from non-interactive digital service providers (including webcasters and satellite radio) and pays them on to artists and sound recording copyright owners.

What are synchronization licenses and royalties?

A synchronization license is permission to incorporate a musical work and/or sound recording into an audiovisual work, such as a movie, television show, video game, or music video. Another example of where music is incorporated into an audiovisual work is the video content created and posted by users of platforms such as YouTube.

What is the Music Modernization Act (MMA)?

The Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (MMA) of 2018 or ‘Music Modernization Act’ for short, is the most significant piece of copyright legislation in decades and updates our current laws to reflect modern consumer preferences and technological developments in the music marketplace. The law is organized into three key titles: Title I—Musical Works Modernization Act; Title II—Classics Protection and Access Act; and Title III—Allocation for Music Producers Act.

Title I of the Act, the Musical Works Modernization Act, replaces the existing work-by-work compulsory licensing structure for making and distributing musical works with a blanket licensing system for digital music providers to make and distribute digital phonorecord deliveries (e.g., permanent downloads, limited downloads, or interactive streams). It also establishes a mechanical licensing collective to administer the blanket license, and a digital licensee coordinator to coordinate the activities of the licensees and designate a representative to serve as a non-voting member on the board of the collective.

For more information, visit the MMA page on the Copyright Office website.

Where can I find information about licensing activities?

There are many organizations that host industry conferences and events and provide helpful information to their members and to the general public on their websites. Here are a few of them: