Sale of all rights to the track! Please help with advice ...

A person wrote to me who wants to buy my composition with all the rights … And I have never sold the rights to music. Tell me, please, by what criteria should I evaluate the rights to a composition, so as not to sell too cheap, and not to overprice too much …

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Why would you want to sell all rights to your music?

I don’t see the point, unless you’re getting a shitload of money for it.

That’s why I’m asking) I don’t understand this at all - I just started selling my compositions)

I find this interesting. What potential reasons would a customer have for wanting to buy the full rights to a song?

@Sibiria22 .

Thats a tricky one.It really depends of what his final purpose is. If he wants to obtain all of the patrimonial legal rights in order to declare them as his own work, well, thats kind of a felony. It is under the legal forgery of documents. If you agree with that, and you aknowledge this , you will be legally considered part of the felony. And yes, if you are thinking about ’ ghost writing’ yes, its illegal. Like always, people found loopholes in the law in order to game the system.Other than that, i cannot see any reason to buy the rights for one track. The extended license like B&F is enough for any purpose. Or , he’s planning to use the track for a shady purpose, which cannot be covered by any license , like extreme sexual videos, extreme religious rituals, etc. :neutral_face:
I’d be really cautios if i were you. Maybe it sounds appealing, but that smells funny to me.

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It is possible to assign your rights to your PRO but if the title must bring in thousands of dollars in rights, it would be a shame unless the brand or the company compensates you royally.

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Thank you all very much for your replies!!! I realized that I do not understand anything in this topic and I will not sell any rights)

Hi, I suppose in this scenario you should weigh up the true value before agreeing to sell rights to any of your music. Think about the potential revenue that the track could bring throughout your lifetime, through licence sales and PRO royalties. Depending on the track (and who licences it), this could add up to multiple thousands.
If the purchaser is willing to pay thousands, it’s worth considering, I think. Especially if the track in question is a fairly run-of-the-mill corporate type. If the track is the next ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’, don’t sell it! :laughing:

You should also ask whether the client actually wants to buy the copyright of the music, or whether they just want exclusivity for the track. If it’s the latter, you could negotiate a time period where you would exclusively licence the track to them, yet retain the rights to PRO royalties. Obviously, the longer the time period, the more expensive the licence fee ought to be. In this case, you should take into account the track’s potential for licence fee earnings in that time when coming up with a figure.

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This is all too common these days. Film and TV Production companies will buy rights to a music score as a part of the commission agreement (called a ‘buyout’) so that they don’t have to pay the performance fees for the music further down the line. I suppose this could also be the case for any stock music that they wish to purchase. I’m not sure how this would work with existing stock music, since any licences previously sold would have to be honoured by the new rights owner, to which they may not be all too accommodating.


There are online licencing platforms that buy out all the music that they offer for licencing for stupendously low fees, that seemingly hundreds of music writers seem to be okay with. It’s important, as a professional musician to know what is a good deal and what is not. The business side of music as a subject might seem boring to most creative people, but it is so important to learn about these things.

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Thank you criskcracker!

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You could have them send over a contract for you to look into. That usually reveals what they want to buy exactly.

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I asked same question few years ago. Others answered: 10000$ (with me keeping the right to collect PRO royalties of course).

Now I can say they were right.

Keep in mind that clients often ask for the rights transfer even when… they do not need them. Narrowing the license rights is always a good idea.

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