Every piece of recorded music contains two separate copyrights: the composition, which is the underlying song, and the master, which is the specific recording of it.
The mechanism
The two are owned, licensed, registered and paid separately, often by different parties. Labels typically hold masters; writers and publishers hold compositions. A licence for one does not licence the other.
A worked example
A film wanting to use a track must clear both the master from whoever owns the recording and the composition from the publisher. Either can refuse independently.
What it is confused with
- Publishing Publishing is the business of administering the composition side. It is not a third copyright.
Why it matters
Almost every ownership dispute, catalogue sale and re-recording is about which of the two is being discussed, and conflating them makes any deal unreadable.
Sources: US Copyright Office
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Related: Recoupment · Black box royalties · 360 deal