So, You Want to Clean Up Your Music Catalog?

A practical guide to understanding your rights, organizing your catalog, and preparing for what’s next.

One of the things I’ve realized after working with artists, songwriters, producers, and other music creators is that a lot of people have no idea what they actually own. They know they made the song. They know they paid for the recording. They know they worked with a producer, signed “some sort of agreement” years ago, or put the music out through a distributor.

But when someone comes along and asks, “Who owns this?” or “What rights do you have?” or “Can you license this?” — suddenly, the answer isn’t always so simple. And that’s a problem.

Reasons to Clean Up Your Catalog in the First Place.

1. You’re Ready to Take Control of Your Music.

There are many reasons why an artist, producer, musician, writer, or other creative would want to clean up their catalog. But you don’t need to be actively pursuing a rights deal or selling your music to have a reason to get organized, and you certainly don’t need to be a hot artist with millions of streams to start taking your music seriously. Understanding what you own, what rights you have, what you control, and what obligations you’ve taken on is part of managing your music as a business asset. It also allows you to exploit and monetize your music in the way it was intended when you created it, or in new ways, even if you’re independent. Being your own label or publisher means you have to wear those hats, too.

2. You’re Looking for a Deal or a New Business Relationship.

You might encounter a plethora of rights deals throughout your career. Deals with publishers, administrators, record labels, and sync agents, to name a few, can cover different types of rights to your music. What’s most important is understanding not just what you’re giving up, however, but what you’re getting in return and what you’re retaining. In a traditional publishing deal, for example, you might give up half of your ownership interest, and, in return, the publisher will administer rights, seek licensing opportunities, collect income, and offer more active creative and commercial support. In an administration deal, you may only give up a revenue share for a specified period of time; however, an administrator’s focus, generally, is managing rights and collecting income, rather than actively developing the songwriter or pursuing new opportunities for the catalog. Some administrators may offer additional creative services such as sync pitching, so it is important to understand exactly what your agreement covers and who you’re working with. An administration deal can be good for artists who simply want to outsource managing their compositions, but not necessarily in catalog development.

Under a record deal, the label typically owns the masters; however, they also usually provide a majority of the financial capital allocated towards recording, production, marketing, and distribution of the record, as well as tour support, etc. By contrast, if you’ve already funded the record and just need to put it out there, a distribution agreement will allow you to do just that without having to give up any ownership.

Ultimately, your deal may look different than the ones mentioned here. Regardless, in order to know which deal is right for you, it’s important to consider what you need and what you’re willing to give up in order to help make your music successful.

3. You’re Preparing for a Transaction or Licensing Opportunity.

You don’t need to be thinking about a huge ongoing publishing deal in order to focus on catalog clean-up. Maybe a production company just reached out to get a master use and/or sync license to use one of your works for their film, or maybe you’re looking to sell your whole catalog in one deal. Even in one-off license deals, the licensee wants to ensure that they have all the necessary rights in order to release their project. Can you provide clean chain of title right now if somebody asked for it?

Understand What You Have.

Chain of Title.

Chain of title is a record of historical ownership transfers for a specific property (e.g., intellectual property, such as a musical composition or sound recording). In many ways, chain of title is simply like the breadcrumb trail in your computer’s file system – a visual representation of how the rights began and where they are now. The more contributors and owners there are, the longer the chain can get, and the more documents you need. In a relay race, the baton gets physically passed from one runner to the next until it reaches the finish line. The baton reaching the finish line is definitive proof that the runners completed the race, because there is no other way the baton could have otherwise made it to the finish line. Chain of title acts as that documentation supporting your claims of ownership and/or control of a particular work.

The problem is that artists beginning on the third leg think they’re running the entire race from the starting line. In other words, an artist may not realize what impacts their ownership interests from the start. They wrote the composition, they recorded the master themselves, so they own it entirely, right? Well… Did they have a producer or a mixer? Did someone help them co-write the composition? Did they hire any musicians to play on the record? Was anyone else involved in the creation of the composition and/or master? Did they use any samples? Do they have a publishing or other rights deal? Was it commissioned by a third-party? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, that artist may not have “clean” chain of title after all.

One important thing I must stress: Just because you created it… does not necessarily mean you own it.

Copyright Basics.

A musical work generally involves two distinct copyrightable works: (1) the musical composition, and (2) the sound recording.  These are the foundation of ownership and rights management of the music industry.

The copyright in a Musical Composition consists of the underlying music and lyrics, including the melodies, rhythms, and/or harmonies, typically “fixed” in written musical notation. The “authors” are typically the composers, lyricists, and/or songwriters.

The copyright in a Sound Recording is the fixation of a series of sounds, whether recorded in a studio or a live performance. This copyright is fixed in the form of a “phonorecord,” typically seen in MP3, CD, LP, or other physical or digital formats. The “authors” are typically the performers, producers, and/or sound engineers. Sound recordings are also typically referred to as “masters” or “master recordings.”

(Circular 56A, Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings; and U.S. Copyright Office, Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices § 800 (3d ed. 2021)).

“Rights” and “Ownership” Are Not Interchangeable.

Copyright ownership generally means owning the copyright of and the exclusive rights provided by the United States Copyright Act in a particular work, subject to applicable limitations and exceptions. Even if you’re not the owner, you may still have the ability to exercise or grant certain rights in and to the work, depending on your agreement with the copyright owner. This might include the right to administer, license, distribute, or collect a particular percentage of income from a particular work or category of rights. The rights you have, including, without limitation, how long you have them and who those rights extend to, depend on any agreements between you and the copyright owner, or any permissions you can acquire through the Copyright Act. With respect to any cleanup or assessment of a catalog, it’s important to know whether you own an interest in a work or have exercisable rights.

The distinction between ownership, rights, passive income, and control can also become important when evaluating a potential deal. Some opportunities require ownership, while others only require enough rights to accomplish a particular purpose. For example, a distributor may not require that you own your masters, just that you have the contractual right to distribute and monetize them. Similarly, an administrator may be able to manage and collect income from your compositions without owning them. By contrast, a traditional co-publishing deal typically involves sharing ownership of the subject compositions with the publisher. The economics of each arrangement will depend on what you’re giving up and the rights being granted, the services being provided, the term of the agreement, and the other obligations and limitations involved.

Other Factors That Can Affect Your Rights.

To make matters even more complex, the “author” doesn’t necessarily equate to an “owner.” Sometimes, the author is subject to an agreement or other applicable law that affects the author’s rights in the work.

If an author’s services are commissioned by a third-party (e.g., an indie artist engaging a music producer for their new record, or a production company engaging a composer to write and record score for a film), the third-party may require the author to execute a “work-made-for-hire” agreement or an assignment. In essence, a “work-made-for-hire” agreement allows for the third-party (here, the indie artist or the film producer) to establish who will own the resulting work. A valid work-made-for-hire arrangement can treat the commissioning party as the legal author and initial owner of the work, but not every agreement labeled ‘work made for hire’ will automatically qualify. Alternatively, the “author” may execute an assignment of all ownership in and to those works to the third-party. (Circular 30, Works Made for Hire). The specific language of the agreement matters, as do the requirements that apply to works made for hire under copyright law.

With respect to the indie artist, a valid “work-made-for-hire” agreement or assignment can establish the artist’s (or in any other case, the party who “commissioned” the work) ownership of the master recording, depending on the circumstances and the terms of the agreement, even where other parties contributed creatively to the recording (i.e., a producer, mixer, musicians).  By contrast, if the artist brings in a producer, a few musicians, and an additional mixer without any written agreements between them, that creates uncertainty and a risk that any of those contributors could claim an interest in the master, whether through an ownership interest, a royalty or other income interest, or another right arising from their contribution. This also applies to songwriters and anyone else who may have contributed creatively to the applicable work.

Before determining whether you actually own a work and have clean chain of title, make sure you consider whether there were any contributors in the creation of the final product.

Assessment: Turning What You Have Into an Organized, Usable Catalog.

Chain of Title, Again.

Determining what kind of agreements you need depends on what kind of “author” you are, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ chain of title package. But hopefully this will give you a better idea of what would be best for you if you’re starting from scratch.

If you are a songwriter, you want documentation showing who wrote each composition, what each writer’s agreed percentage is, who owns or administers each interest, and any agreements affecting those interests. This becomes especially important where the intended percentages between writers and publishers are unequal, or where someone contributed creatively but the parties did not intend for that person to become a co-writer.

If you are an artist, label, or other master owner, you need documentation concerning the sound recordings themselves, including, without limitation, who created them, who owns them, and what rights were granted to any producers, mixers, featured artists, musicians, labels, distributors, etc. The documentation also needs to address the underlying compositions as well, including who wrote it, who owns it, and whether you have permission to record it, because you cannot exploit a master recording without also exploiting the underlying composition.

If you are a producer, you need documentation establishing your relationship with the artist and/or songwriters, including any economic or ownership interests that you negotiated. If you are entitled to record royalties or ownership in the master or composition, the agreement should establish that clearly. If you intend to receive a share of certain master-side royalties, the agreement should also establish a mechanism to actually receive those royalties, such as a letter of direction, especially for SoundExchange. Even if your agreement explicitly provides for your percentage of record royalties, the artist is generally not obligated to pay you SoundExchange royalties unless they sign, or are contractually obligated to sign, a “SoundExchange Letter of Direction” directing payment of your royalties to you. (That said… artists, please pay your producers!!)

Anyone who contributes to the composition or sound recording in a way that could potentially create an ownership, rights, or compensation issue should be accounted for.

Catalog Inventory – The “Rights Matrix”.

The Rights Matrix (sometimes also referred to as “Inventory” or “Catalog”) is your map for navigating the relevant agreements and chain of title of your catalog, and tracks ownership, rights, and other data necessary to identify, manage, and evaluate the catalog itself. The easiest way to track all of this information is using a spreadsheet or other data organization system like Excel or Google Sheets.  

Ideally, your Rights Matrix should be separated by composition and masters, and should track work titles, contributors/authors, PROs, percentages, applicable agreements, ID codes, copyright registrations, to name a few. Frankly, there is a lot of information to track and it can be overwhelming. The goal is simply to create a system that someone else could pick up tomorrow and understand without ever speaking to you or knowing your music.

Lucky for you, I have released a 100% free Rights Matrix template to begin this journey of cleaning up your catalog yourself, which you can find here:

Gaps and Inconsistencies.

Your Rights Matrix may not be perfect, and that’s okay. It may have gaps where data is missing or hasn’t been documented yet. It may have inconsistencies where the data may not agree with each other. These gaps and inconsistencies should still be reflected in the Rights Matrix so that you know what to revisit later. Maybe you need to contact your PRO and correct a publisher IPI No. or a writer’s percentage, or you need to get an agreement out to one of your producers that’s missing. This is a great way to track, prevent, or explain any potential rights issues in the long run.

Other gaps can include unrecouped balances. Even if income from a particular record or catalog is being applied toward an unrecouped balance, you should be receiving statements or other accountings from the company responsible for that income, whether that’s your label, publisher, or other party.  You can track your unrecouped balance so that the minute your account is recouped, you know that you should start receiving royalty payments.  Do not assume that your publisher or label will automatically send checks your way once your unrecouped balance hits zero. It’s not uncommon for an artist to let years go by thinking they’re not generating income simply because their account is unrecouped, only to later discover that the account actually recouped years earlier and the company continued collecting the income. Whatever the reason, this is exactly the kind of problem that can be prevented by keeping track of your own account.

Also, do not assume that an accounting problem will always be fixable years later. Contractual and legal time limits can restrict how far back you can pursue certain claims, and in some cases, you may only be able to go back 2 or 3 years to collect lost income, if at all.

Preparing for What’s Next.

Once you’ve taken the time to understand your catalog, you have the Rights Matrix, you have a folder of all of your agreements, and you’ve cleaned up, or at least identified, any holes in your catalog. You’ve now created a resource that you can actually use when an opportunity comes along. Not to mention, having this resource can make sourcing these opportunities easier in the future.

Match the Materials to the Opportunity and Make the Music Easy to Evaluate.

Different opportunities require different information. Much like separating your Rights Matrix into compositions vs. masters, different deals concern different rights and different parts of your catalog. If you are pursuing a publishing deal, you may not want to send the publisher your entire Rights Matrix, including your masters and producer royalty information. Likewise, if you’re securing a sync agent for a specific album in your catalog, you’ll want to clearly articulate what rights and ownership you have in those specific titles and provide the agent with the appropriate information and agreements.  The beauty of having an organized catalog is that you don’t have to start over every time someone asks you a question. You can pull the relevant information from the larger picture you’ve created. 

An organized catalog also makes it easier for someone else to evaluate what you have. If a publisher, buyer, or other potential partner has to spend months piecing together ownership, splits, agreements, registrations, and income from decades of scattered records, that creates additional work and uncertainty.  The more clearly you can show what you own, what you control, what you earn, and what documentation supports it, the easier it is for someone else to understand the value of what you’re offering. Not to mention, it’s easier for you to understand the value of what you’re offering and be able to assess a deal without needing a buyer to tell you what your catalog is worth.

Know When to Bring in a Professional.

This article is meant to give any artist, songwriter, producer, or other creative a healthy start to clean up their catalog, whether they’re just starting out or have been in the business for decades. Every artist should be capable of doing this. You don’t need to be a lawyer or other expert in the industry. However, there is a point when professional help may be necessary, when you can identify the issues, but don’t necessarily know how to resolve them. Don’t attempt to send out a bunch of random agreements you found online (or worse, create them with AI) in a panic thinking it’s going to fix all of your problems. Sometimes, it only makes them worse.

Start the spreadsheet, gather what agreements, emails, statements, and other documentation you have, and identify the questions you can’t answer. Do your research. If you eventually reach out to a professional to resolve those issues, you’ll be in a much better position when you do. The goal isn’t to become your own lawyer; it’s to know enough about your own music to understand what you have, recognize when something doesn’t look right, and know when it’s time to ask for help.