Navigating music licensing terms and definitions is a breeze when you have the ultimate music glossary on hand — so we created one just for you.
License
Licensing from the Marmoset catalog of music entails obtaining rights to use the song(s) for an agreed upon time period. Music licensing gives you the ability to use a song in almost any kind of creative project — like building out a stellar soundtrack for your feature film or creating a signature sound to your podcast’s intro.
Custom License
Marmoset can tailor a license to your project’s specifications — does your creative project have some tricky variables or broadcasting terms, or are you considering using a specific kind of vintage song but not seeing the “Buy Song” button? A custom license best ensures you’re covered, fill out our custom license form to get started.
End Client
The end client is the person or company the content is made for — if you’re a videographer hired to film and edit an ad campaign for Nike, the end client would be Nike. Swoosh!
Employee Count
This is is the number of employees who work for the project client’s company. For example, if you were creating a video for a large company like Amazon, the employee count is the number of employees employed by Amazon.
Internal Use
When music is licensed for content such as internal presentations, meetings, intranet or internal email blasts. If it’s not being publicly shared or released, we consider this internal use.
Industrial Use
This refers to licensing music for media showcased in trade and sale shows, conventions, institutional meetings, retail dealers/in-store use, kiosks, PR use and B2B facing videos.
Instrumental
If a song is absent of lyrics (vocals), the song will be labeled as instrumental. Commonly, Marmoset has both instrumental and lyrical versions of a song — here’s an example of how an instrumental song is labeled on the search page.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property covers intangible content and creations — it covers anything from trademarks to copyright. When you see intellectual property, this indicates that content belongs to that content creator. For example, a song, while not tangible, is still an artist’s intellectual property.
Lyrical
Lyrical indicates a song with lyrics (the inclusion of vocal melodies). Sometimes the lyrical versions of a song will contain lyrics. While browsing the roster, click the three vertical dots and select Lyrics to see more.
Monetization
Using on one’s content to generate revenue can be categorized as monetization. When it comes to music licensing, streaming sites or any platform that incorporates pre-roll ads is a monetary opportunity for the content creator.
Non-Permitted Content
This is content that goes beyond the limit of what the license terms cover. Using the previous example of a Personal – Single Use Podcast License — if the podcast is hosted on a commercial or website, this scenario would fall into non-permitted content. Not quite sure and need to double check? We can help.
Perpetual
A perpetual license means forever, ever. With perpetual licensing, you don’t have to worry about the hassles of renewing a license and its terms. An indefinite (perpetual) music license means you can keep your YouTube miniseries online without the song’s license expiring.
Performance Rights Organizations (PRO)
Performance Rights Organizations support artists and songwriters in getting paid for the usage of their work/music through royalties. While Marmoset focuses on helping our artist community get paid for their music, we are not a PRO but instead a sync licensing agency and original music production studio.
Permitted Content
When purchasing a license, you’ll want to review what exactly the license covers. For example, a Personal – Single Use Podcast License’s permitted content covers a single 12 month audio podcast series posted by a non-commercial place (i.e someone’s blog). Read up more on a license’s permitted content here.
PR Usage
Licensing music for promotional purposes or for your company’s PR campaign? This is right up your alley. We can help with licensing music specifically for PR use, just ask.
Renewal
In the case of licenses that are nearing their expiration date (non-perpetual licenses), once the license reaches its entire duration period you’ll have the option to either extend/renew said license.
Web (Paid)
When a song is being used in material where you’re generating revenue (think YouTube videos with sponsored or promotional ads, such as Hulu pre-roll or even social boosting) . Keep an eye out for this one especially if it falls within a license’s non-permitted content description.
Web (Unpaid)
Content with no ad dollars behind it or if being shared on a personal website. If your film was created outside an actual studio system and is being shared in a standard festival circuit, this is considered Unpaid Web. In the chance your film is picked up later for distribution, get in touch with us to revise your license conditions.