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No. 29Rights & Licenses
Also called sub-licence, third-party licensing, sublicense rights
The label's right to licence your recordings to third parties without your approval.
Watch closely
Broad sublicensing rights allow the label to deal with your recordings without your involvement.
Sublicensing gives the label the right to grant licences for your recordings to third parties, other labels, distributors, film studios, or brands, without needing to seek your consent for each deal. Income from sublicences flows through the label's accounting system and is subject to the same royalty calculations as direct sales.
Without controls on sublicensing, the label can place your music in contexts you would never approve and license to companies whose terms are unfavourable. Sub-licencee accounting is also harder to audit.
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.