What does a music license actually cover?

You found the perfect track for your video, your podcast intro, or your game's main menu. You're about to license it. But before you do, there's a fair question that almost nobody answers clearly: what does that license actually let you do?

A music license isn't a purchase of the song. You're not buying the music itself - the artist still owns that. What you're buying is permission: a defined right to use that recording in a specific way, in a specific project, in specific places. The whole job of a good license is to draw that line clearly so you never have to wonder whether you're allowed to do what you're about to do.

At Songfindr, every license we issue answers four questions. Once you understand those four, you understand your license.

1. What project is it for?

Every Songfindr license is tied to one specific project - one video, one podcast series, one campaign, one client deliverable. That's the unit. If you license a track for your travel vlog, it's licensed for that vlog. Use the same track in an unrelated client ad, and that's a separate project that needs its own license.

The good news is that "one project" is generous about the things that should obviously be covered: re-cuts, shorter edits, derivative versions, and excerpts of the same project all stay licensed. If you publish a 12-minute video and then cut a 30-second teaser from it for Instagram, you don't need a second license. It's the same project.

So the rule of thumb is simple: a new, unrelated project means a new license. Everything that's genuinely part of the project you licensed for is already covered.

2. Where will the track be used?

This is where the different licenses come in - and it's the part most people get wrong when they buy from generic stock-music sites.

Songfindr prices a license by where the track will run, not by who you are. When you license a track, we ask one question - where will this track be used? - and your answer is the license. A freelancer and an agency making the same online ad need the same license, and a YouTuber putting a track on their own channel never pays agency prices.

Here's how the answers map:

• Personal - your own channels and podcasts, monetization included. Earning from your own content (YouTube Partner Programme, platform ad revenue) is allowed; client or brand work and paid advertising are not. Covers 1 linked channel of up to 1M subscribers or followers, and your own podcasts at any download volume.
• Digital - everything in Personal, plus client, brand and work-for-hire deliverables anywhere online: social, websites, corporate and internal video, podcasts, and digital-only paid ads up to $10,000 of media spend per campaign. Up to 3 linked channels.
• Expanded - everything in Digital, plus the physical world: screens in shops and venues, trade shows and events, out-of-home advertising up to $2,500 of media spend per campaign, and film festivals.
• All-Media - everything in Digital, plus broadcast: editorial TV, radio, OTT/CTV and cinema, in one national territory. It covers the programme itself, not advertising for it.
• Business - the Digital scope for an organisation, shared by up to 3 seats with up to 5 linked channels. Business is sold as a subscription only.
• Games - licensed per registered game title rather than per project: one track (Game Track) or a five-track pack (Game Soundtrack, extendable to 20 tracks), on PC, mobile, browser and console, including the game's own trailers. For self-published studios under $200,000 in annual revenue or funding.

Expanded and All-Media are siblings, not steps: each includes Digital, but neither includes the other. A campaign that runs on billboards and on TV needs both.

Registered non-profits get 20% off Digital and Business. Current prices are on the pricing page.

The pattern across all of these: the license matches how the music is used. Pick the answer that honestly describes where the track will run, and the coverage follows.

3. How long do you keep the right to use it?

This is the question that trips people up most with subscriptions, so let's be precise.

If you buy a one-time license for a single track, that's yours for that project, permanently.

If you're on a subscription (Personal, Digital or Business), here's the rule that matters: every project you register on Songfindr while your subscription is active stays licensed forever - even after you cancel. Each registered project gets its own license certificate, dated the day you registered it, which is your proof that it was covered.

What the subscription gates is registering new projects. Once your subscription ends, you can't use our music in a new project until you subscribe again or buy a one-time license. Everything you already registered stays fully licensed, and any track you downloaded while subscribed, you can re-download anytime.

And one reassuring detail: if you cancel, you keep access through the end of the period you already paid for. The cut-off is your plan's end date, not the day you click cancel.

One service does depend on an active plan: YouTube Content ID claim clearing. We release claims video by video, usually in about three days. On a subscription that works while the plan is active; for a track bought with a one-time license, it's permanent.

4. What's not covered?

A license is as much about the limits as the permissions, and we'd rather you know the edges up front than discover them later. A few things are never included in a standard Songfindr license:

• No reselling or sublicensing. You can't hand the music to a third party, repackage it as a stock asset, or sell the soundtrack on its own. You licensed it for your use.
• No AI training. Our music can't be used to train machine-learning or AI models.
• Personal stays your own. No client or brand work and no paid advertising on a Personal license - that's what Digital is for.

And some uses are quoted individually rather than sold instantly:

• Advertising on broadcast (a TV, radio or cinema commercial), or broadcast in more than one national territory.
• Campaigns above the media-spend ceilings - $10,000 for digital ads, $2,500 for out-of-home.
• Exclusivity.
• Games from a publisher, work-for-hire productions, AAA titles, or studios above the revenue ceiling.
• Channels over 1M subscribers - usually a conversation about Content ID rather than a fee.
• Very large organisations.

None of these are off-limits - they just deserve a proper conversation and a price that fits the scale. Use Request Custom Quote in the license window, or email us, and we'll sort it out.

The short version

A Songfindr music license is permission to use one track, in one project, in the places your license covers - and if you're subscribed, that permission is permanent for every project you register while you're a member.

Pick the license that honestly matches where the track will run, and you're covered. If your project goes beyond the self-serve licenses, that's not a wall - it's a quick request to get the right one. Either way, the goal is the same: you should always know exactly what you're allowed to do with the music you love, before you hit publish.

Questions about a specific use case? Reach us at [email protected] - we write these licenses, so we can tell you exactly where your project lands.