Trailer Music: How Covers and Re-Recordings Build Impact

Covers and trailerized re-recordings have become an important part of film and game trailer music. They keep the recognition of a familiar composition while giving the production more control over pace, arrangement, vocals and emotional build.

The creative route still depends on the rights. A new recording may remove the need for the original master licence, but the underlying composition and any requested changes still need to be cleared.

Master vs. Publishing

There are two main rights that you have to take into consideration when licensing (a version of) a popular track for a trailer or commercial; the master recording rights and the composition/publishing rights. In most cases these are controlled by different parties. The master recording refers to the actual recorded version of a song and is often owned by the record label of the performing artist. The copyright of the composition belongs to the songwriters and their publishers and refers to what makes the song unique, like melody, harmony, structure and lyrics.

Not All Songs Are Created Equal

When dealing with these two sides of sync licensing and the rates involved in both, a term you may have heard about is Most Favored Nations. MFN is an agreement that ensures parity/equal pay between the publishing and recording parties when negotiating a sync license. Equal fees for master and publishing rights are pretty common, but there are exceptions. There are circumstances when it isn’t really logical to handle the same rates for  publishing and masters. Think about it, if my band covers a Beatles-tune, the license for the composition by the Beatles will be much higher than my master recording. But if Paul and Ringo decide to cover one of my band’s tunes, their recording will be worth much more than my original composition. In most cases though, when it comes to licensing a cover version of a song, the master recording is easier to clear than the publishing rights.

I Will Survive, and how to get the best sync license terms

Let’s illustrate this with an example; say you’re working on a trailer for a fighting game and you want to use ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor as the soundtrack, but there is no budget to license the original version by the artist. A suitable re-recording may offer a practical route while keeping the recognition of the composition.

To get a fair deal and optimal terms, it is helpful to have a party on board that knows the ins-and-outs of the sync market and music licensing (like Clear Music). We have existing and long-standing relationships with publishers and record labels and are able to negotiate a fair price for the sync and master use license. The final license fee will depend on a number of things, like the duration of the trailer and how many seconds of the music cue is used, the content of the trailer (synopsis), the prominence of the cue, and of course the popularity/familiarity of the song.

We work with labels, artists and publishers to assess and clear suitable original recordings, covers and re-recordings for trailer projects. The right route depends on the song, the rights, the usage, the budget and the deadline. If you are working on a trailer, send the brief to hello@clearmusic.com.