Kohn on Music Licensing

Whether you are a music publisher or songwriter looking to maximize the value of your music catalog, or a producer, ad agency, or internet music service seeking to clear music rights for products, performances, and other uses, the new Fifth Edition of Kohn On Music Licensing offers you comprehensive and authoritative guidance.

This one-of-a-kind resource takes you through the various music licensing processes, type-by-type and step-by-step. In clear, coherent language, the author, a seasoned attorney and executive in both the entertainment and high-tech industries, provides detailed explanations of the many kinds of music licenses, identifies the critical issues addressed in each, and offers valuable strategy and guidance to both rights owners and prospective licensees.

Kohn on Music Licensing, Fifth Edition:

• Walks the reader through the history of the music publishing business, from Tin Pan Alley to the user-generated content phenomena of the present.
• Dissects the songwriter agreement, providing the reader with a clause-by-clause analysis and offering the best negotiating strategies to achieve the best possible outcome for their clients.
• Analyses the newly enacted Music Modernization Act, signed into law in September 2018, which significantly changed the way music is licensed in sound recordings in the United States.
• Guides the reader through the complexities of co-publishing agreements, administration agreements, and international subpublishing agreements, with a report on the rapidly changing music licensing landscape in Europe.
• Takes on the intricacies of licensing music in sound recordings, from the traditional CD format to the newer delivery methods, including downloads, streams, ringtones and ringbacks—including the rates and terms used in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
• Confronts the pitfalls of licensing music for audiovisual works (synchronization licenses) using history as a guide, from the early talkies through streaming internet content.
• Explores new media and its impact on the licensing process. Technological developments have forced the industry to rethink licenses when dealing with video games, computer software, karaoke, and digital print (including downloadable sheet music, lyric database websites, and digital guitar tabs..
• Sizes up the digital sampling controversy and offers up suggestions for negotiating licenses for digital samples.
• Explores the ever-evolving concept of Fair Use and its application to the music industry.
• Provides the reader with a look at the landscape of licensing fees, including “going rates” for synch, print, radio & TV advertising, new media, and other licenses, to assist in negotiating the best rates for their clients.

Proven tips and suggestions, along with the most up-to-date analysis, are given for the technical aspects of music licensing, from the perspective of both the rights owners and prospective licensees, including

• How to "clear" a license
• Advice on maximizing the value of your music copyrights
• Formalities of licensing
• Duration of copyright, renewal and termination of grants
• Typical fees
• And much more

Every chapter of Kohn on Music Licensing has been completely updated in this expanded Fifth Edition. New topics include:

• The Music Modernization Act, enacted in 2018, which changed the way music is licensed in sound recordings in the United States.
• Mechanical license fee regimes, including rates for ringtones and on-demand streaming for U.S., Canada, and U.K.
• Webcasting rates in the U.S., Canada, and U.K.
• A discussion of the right of publicity in the context of digital sampling.
• Print License chapter has an updated discussion on adaptation right as well as examines terms for digital print, digital guitar tabs, etc. Custom musical arrangements are also covered.
• Synch License chapter now covers terms for downloading and streaming of video.

Previous Edition: Kohn on Music Licensing, Fourth Edition, ISBN : 9780735590908