Music Licensing Companies
A music licensing company is a business that represents music to sync licensees (filmmakers, brand agencies, video game studios, TV networks) and collects licensing fees on behalf of the composer or rights holder. Music licensing companies typically take 30 to 50 percent of every license fee in exchange for catalog representation, supervisor relationships, and licensing administration. In 2026, the major categories are curated catalogs (Musicbed, Marmoset), sync agencies (Position Music, Pusher Music), and production libraries (Tonal Chaos Trailers, Outsider Music, Audiomachine). DropCue is the platform composers use to pitch supervisors directly and keep 100% of the deal, alongside (not instead of) submitting to these companies.
Start Free 7-Day Trial →People search for these interchangeably as music license companies or music licensing companies, and they mean the same thing: a business that represents music to sync buyers and collects the fee. The three main types of music license companies are curated catalogs, sync agencies, and production libraries, covered in detail below.
Music licensing companies are businesses that connect composers and rights holders with the productions, brands, and creators who need music. They sit in the middle of the deal, handling discovery, negotiation, and sometimes delivery, and take a percentage of the licensing fee in exchange. That percentage ranges from 30 percent at the low end to 60 percent for some premium curated catalogs, with sync agencies typically sitting around 40 to 50 percent of every placement they close.
There are three distinct categories that get grouped under this label, and they work very differently. Curated music catalogs like Musicbed, Songtradr, and Artlist build searchable libraries of licensed music that filmmakers, ad agencies, and content creators browse and license directly. The platform manages the transaction and splits the fee with the composer. Composers submit tracks for curation review, a process that can take weeks, and then wait for buyers to discover them organically.
Sync agencies like Position Music, Pusher, and Marmoset take a different approach. They sign rosters of composers and actively pitch their music to music supervisors, trailer houses, and advertising agencies. Rather than running a marketplace, they work like a sales team on your behalf. The trade-off is that most sync agencies require exclusivity (at least for the works they represent) and want to see a portfolio of prior placements before they sign anyone new. Breaking into a sync agency without existing credits is genuinely difficult.
Production music libraries like APM, Universal Production Music, and Extreme Music serve the high-volume end of the market: broadcast television, streaming platforms, reality shows, corporate video. They pay smaller fees per use but place music at much higher volume than boutique agencies. For composers who can write music that fits TV-ready templates across multiple genres, production libraries offer steady income.
The working composer’s strategy is not to choose between these but to layer them. Submit your strongest tracks to one or two curated catalogs for passive inbound. Work toward agency representation once you have a handful of placements as a calling card. And for active outbound, where you initiate the pitch, choose the supervisor, tailor the playlist, and follow up, use a direct pitching tool that keeps 100 percent of every fee you close yourself. The math of running both pipelines is simple: passive income compounds slowly from catalog submissions while active outbound converts faster and pays more per deal.
Understanding which type of company you are dealing with matters before you sign anything. Exclusivity clauses, master ownership terms, and co-publishing agreements vary widely. Always have an entertainment lawyer review any agreement that takes a percentage of your publishing or requires exclusivity across your catalog before signing.
The two phrases get mixed up constantly, and they mean different things. Music license companies (or music licensing companies) are commercial businesses: catalogs, sync agencies and libraries that pitch music to productions and take a share of the sync fee. Music licensing organizations are the rights bodies that license and collect for whole repertoires at once, usually for performances and reproductions rather than for placing a song in a scene.
In the United States, the main music licensing organizations are the performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR, which license public performance of compositions to broadcasters, venues and streaming services and pay writers and publishers. SoundExchange collects digital performance royalties for sound recordings on non-interactive services such as satellite and internet radio. The MLC administers the blanket mechanical license for streaming and downloads created by the Music Modernization Act. Outside the US, societies such as PRS for Music, SOCAN, GEMA and SACEM play the same roles.
None of these organizations issues a sync license. Synchronization rights are negotiated directly with whoever controls the composition and the master: the composer and their publisher, the artist and their label, or a music licensing company acting for them. That is why a composer needs both. Register every work with a PRO so the performance royalties from a placement reach you, and use licensing companies or direct pitching to land the placement in the first place.
If you are on the other side of the deal, a brand, an agency, a production company or a filmmaker who needs music, music licensing companies sell to you in three ways. The right one depends on how much music you use, where it runs, and how much risk your legal team will accept.
Subscription music licensing services such as Artlist, Epidemic Sound, Musicbed and Soundstripe charge a flat monthly or annual fee for unlimited use of their catalog. They suit businesses that publish a lot of video: social content, YouTube channels, internal and training video, podcasts. Before you subscribe, check three things in the license itself, not the sales page: whether paid advertising and broadcast TV are covered or cost extra, how many seats, brands or client projects one plan covers, and whether content published while you subscribed stays licensed after you cancel.
Royalty-free catalogs and production music libraries such as PremiumBeat, APM Music and Universal Production Music license one track at a time, priced by use. This suits a business that needs a few tracks a year for specific campaigns, or a production company licensing cues for an episode or a film. The fee scales with media, term and territory, so a worldwide broadcast ad costs far more than an online-only video.
For a hero spot, a film or a trailer, buyers go to sync agencies, trailer music libraries such as Tonal Chaos Trailers, or straight to composers. One-stop music, where a single party controls both the composition and the master, clears with one signature and is what most supervisors look for on a deadline. A well known commercial song needs both the publisher and the label to agree and is priced per deal.
Procurement teams buying music for a company should ask every vendor the same questions. Who controls the rights, and can the vendor grant both sync and master use without a third party? Does the license cover every media you run, including paid social, connected TV and broadcast? Is the term perpetual for published content? Will the vendor clear your videos from YouTube Content ID claims? Does the vendor indemnify you if a track turns out to infringe? How many users, brands, subsidiaries and agencies does one agreement cover? And what happens to content already live when the contract ends? A vendor that answers all seven in writing is one your legal team can sign.
Need the paperwork side? Our free music license agreement template shows every clause a license should carry, and the guide to music licensing services compares the main models side by side.
Tonal Chaos Trailers: premium trailer music library. Big blockbuster theatrical movie trailers, major streaming TV promos (Netflix, HBO, Apple), and AAA video game trailers. Epic hybrid orchestral, cinematic action, sci-fi, drama, horror, adventure/family. Highly selective on quality and genre fit.
Outsider Music: production music library focused on television shows and advertising commercials. Broadcast-ready cues across genres for episodic TV, reality, and ad campaigns. Submissions by invitation rather than open form.
Artlist: subscription-based royalty-free catalog. Filmmakers, YouTubers, and content creators get unlimited royalty-free music for one annual fee. For composers, Artlist offers steady (smaller) per-license payouts at high volume.
Epidemic Sound: subscription-based royalty-free catalog (Stockholm). One-stop music for unlimited use. Composers signed to Epidemic earn royalties when their tracks get used in monetized content (especially YouTube). Typically exclusive composer deals.
Musicbed: curated catalog. 40-50% cut. Highly selective. Premium positioning + active sales team pitching for composers. Higher-priced than royalty-free subscriptions.
PremiumBeat: royalty-free curated catalog (owned by Shutterstock). Hand-picked royalty-free music integrated with the Shutterstock stock-footage ecosystem.
Marmoset: boutique sync agency + catalog. 50% cut. Reputation for landing premium ad campaigns and prestige TV cuts (Apple, Nike, HBO). Highly selective intake.
Songtradr: open marketplace + curated. 30-50% cut. Mass-market sync platform. AI-driven matching is hit-or-miss.
Position Music: sync agency, 50% cut. Direct relationships with major shows and trailers.
Pusher: boutique sync agency, 40-50% cut. Reputation for landing prestige TV cuts.
APM Music / Universal Production Music: production music library. High volume of placements, smaller fees per use.
Audiosocket: music licensing company and sync agency with a public auditions portal. Offers both non-exclusive and exclusive deals; no covers, samples or AI-generated music.
Both, in sequence. Most working composers start by pitching directly while building a portfolio of placements (this is when DropCue is most useful, because you keep 100% of every fee). Once you have 5-10 sync placements under your belt, sync agencies become receptive to signing you, and they bring scale you cannot get on your own. The two-pipeline strategy: submit to two or three licensing companies for passive inbound, and pitch supervisors directly with DropCue for active outbound.
If you are ready to submit, our list of music licensing companies accepting submissions was rechecked in October 2026 and covers what each one wants and exactly how to send it.
DropCue is the toolkit composers use to pitch supervisors directly: branded share links, embedded metadata, per-recipient analytics. We do not take a percentage of placements like libraries and agencies do. Use both channels in parallel.
Whether you are submitting to a library or pitching a supervisor directly, the person on the other end decides in seconds whether to press play. A link that opens on a plain file list asks them to do the work. A page that looks like a finished release does it for them.
DropCue’s Marquee design puts a looping video banner behind your name or your playlist title, with your music, reels and photos gliding up underneath. It works on portfolios and EPKs, on playlist share pages and on album pages, so the same cinematic look carries from your EPK to the exact playlist you sent a library A&R. Listeners do not need an account to press play, and music supervisors use DropCue free. The Marquee is included with Pro and Studio.
These are live pages from DropCue’s own demo account, with made-up artists, so you can open them and see exactly what a recipient sees:
Composer payouts from music licensing companies depend on three variables: the type of company, the use case for the cue, and the negotiating leverage of the catalog itself. Net of the company’s cut, most composers see between 50 percent and 70 percent of the gross license fee on a curated-catalog placement, with sync agencies typically splitting somewhere around 50 percent of every deal they close.
License fees themselves swing dramatically based on use. A regional TV ad in a single country might pay a few thousand dollars in a sync fee. A national advertising campaign for a major brand can run into six figures. A background cue used in a single episode of an unscripted reality show might pay a few hundred dollars and then build over years of reruns through performance royalties. The cleanest way to model your income from a licensing company is not the headline fee but the year-three view: how does this catalog pay across episodic TV reruns, streaming residuals, and library backlist demand twelve months after the original license closes.
Royalty-free and subscription-based catalogs work on a completely different model. Instead of one-off license fees, composers earn a share of the platform’s subscriber revenue, distributed by play count or download count. The per-track payout is much smaller, but the volume is much higher if the music gets surfaced by the platform’s search and recommendation engine. The royalty-free model rewards catalog depth and consistent style more than the boutique sync model rewards individual placements.
The right music licensing company for any composer is the one whose existing roster already places the kind of music the composer makes, in the kind of productions the composer wants to be in. This sounds obvious but it is the single filter that most submissions get wrong. A composer who writes orchestral trailer music has almost nothing to gain from a catalog that licenses lo-fi indie to YouTube vloggers, even if both technically license music.
Start by reverse-engineering the companies whose music already lands the placements the composer wants. If a TV drama is using cinematic instrumental cues for tense scenes, look up the music supervisor in the credits, then look at which catalogs and agencies they license from most often. If a streaming ad campaign uses a particular sound, search the brand and the agency to see who placed it. Three to five names tend to emerge from any honest reverse-engineering exercise.
Then audit the catalog itself before submitting. Does the company actively pitch the composer’s category of music, or is it a single-genre fit. Are the fees disclosed or hidden behind sales reps. Does the contract let the composer keep their masters and split publishing fairly. Is the catalog growing in a way that suggests they are signing new composers, or has the roster been static for two years. Each answer narrows the list further.
Music licensing companies are businesses that connect music with productions that need it. They come in three main flavors: (1) curated catalogs like Musicbed and Songtradr that license music to filmmakers and ad agencies, taking a cut of every fee; (2) sync agencies like Position Music and Pusher that actively pitch their roster of composers to supervisors for a percentage; (3) production music libraries like APM and Universal Production Music that build deep, broad catalogs for high-volume TV/broadcast placements.
Music licensing organizations are the rights bodies that license and collect for whole repertoires at once. In the US that means the performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR (public performance of compositions), SoundExchange (digital performance royalties for sound recordings on non-interactive services) and The MLC (the blanket mechanical license for streaming and downloads). They do not issue sync licenses. Sync rights are negotiated with whoever controls the composition and master, directly or through a music licensing company, so a composer needs both: PRO registration to collect performance royalties, and licensing companies or direct pitching to land the placement.
A music license subscription is a flat monthly or annual fee for unlimited use of a company's catalog in your videos, instead of paying per track. Artlist, Epidemic Sound, Musicbed and Soundstripe all sell them. They suit creators and businesses that publish a lot of video. Check whether paid ads and broadcast are covered, how many brands or seats one plan includes, and whether published videos stay licensed after you cancel.
Businesses license music three ways: subscription catalogs such as Artlist, Epidemic Sound and Soundstripe for high-volume online video; production libraries such as APM Music and Universal Production Music for per-track and broadcast use; and sync agencies, trailer libraries or composers directly for custom, one-stop and hero-spot music. Brands running paid media should confirm advertising and broadcast use is in the license: Musicbed, for example, reserves broadcast and connected TV for its Enterprise plan (checked October 2026).
Ask seven things in writing: who controls the rights and whether the vendor grants both sync and master use; which media are covered, including paid social, connected TV and broadcast; whether the term is perpetual for published content; whether the vendor clears YouTube Content ID claims; whether it indemnifies you against infringement; how many users, brands and agencies one agreement covers; and what happens to live content when the contract ends.
Each company has its own submission process. Some, like Audiosocket, Marmoset and Terrorbird, run public submission forms with review queues (Audiosocket aims for 90 days). Musicbed accepts fewer than 1% of submissions. Sync agencies like Position Music and Pusher are largely referral-driven: you typically need a connection or a strong portfolio of placements to get on their roster. Production libraries like APM accept submissions through agent relationships or direct outreach with proven catalogs. The fastest path to placements often skips submission queues entirely: pitch supervisors directly with a hosted EPK link.
Net of the company's cut, composers typically see 50-70% of the gross license fee. So for a $5,000 sync placement on a TV show, the composer might receive $2,500-$3,500 after the agency or library takes their cut. For independents who pitch directly via a tool like DropCue, the math is simpler: you keep the whole fee. The trade-off is that direct-pitch composers do their own outreach work, while signed composers get the company's sales muscle.
Both, in sequence. Most working composers start by pitching directly while building a portfolio of placements (this is when DropCue is most useful, because you keep 100% of every fee and you build a personal network). Once you have 5-10 sync placements under your belt, sync agencies become receptive to signing you, and they bring scale you cannot get on your own. The math: a 50% cut is fine when the agency is closing 5x more deals than you would alone. The math is bad when they're only closing 1.5x more.
Musicbed and Songtradr are catalogs: they collect music and license it to clients, taking a cut. DropCue is a toolkit: you keep your catalog yours, and you pitch supervisors directly with branded share links. The two are complementary. Many composers submit to Musicbed for inbound (filmmakers searching the catalog) and use DropCue for outbound (you pitching specific supervisors directly). We do not take a percentage of placements like libraries and agencies do.
Usually yes, but read every contract. Most curated catalogs (Musicbed, Songtradr) and production libraries are non-exclusive by track, meaning you can also have your music in other catalogs and pitch directly. Sync agencies are more often exclusive: Position Music and similar agencies typically want you to only pitch through them once signed. Check the exclusivity language before signing anything, and never sign over your masters or publishing without a lawyer reviewing the deal.
Three paths: (1) IMDB and the credits of shows whose music you love, where supervisors are listed by name, then search them on LinkedIn. (2) Industry-specific tools like the Guild of Music Supervisors directory and Tunefind. (3) Newsletters like Music Business Worldwide that announce new placement deals. Build a list of 10-20 supervisors whose existing placements match your sound. Depth beats breadth. Then pitch each one with a personalized note and a hosted EPK link they can press play on.
Two big buckets dominate. Cinematic and instrumental (epic hybrid orchestral, ambient electronic, indie classical, modern minimalism) for trailers, dramatic scenes, and ad backings. Indie songs with universal lyrics (folk, alt-pop, alt-country, alt-R&B) for needle drops in TV and film. The constant: emotional clarity, clean production, and a clear "in" point in the first 15 seconds. Niche genres can absolutely place, but you need to find the supervisors who specifically want what you do.
Most music licensing companies pay both. The upfront synchronization fee is paid when the license closes. Performance royalties (collected by ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or your local PRO) flow back to the composer every time the cue actually airs on broadcast TV, streaming platforms, or in public spaces. The catalog or sync agency keeps their cut of the upfront fee, but the performance royalty side is paid directly to the writer and publisher of the cue, which is why getting registered with a PRO and properly metadata-tagging every track before submission matters even more than the sync fee itself.
For curated catalogs, expect a curation review window of two to twelve weeks before tracks even go live in the searchable library. Once live, placements arrive on the platform's natural schedule, which is mostly out of the composer's hands. Some tracks place within weeks, most place across months and years, and a handful never place. Sync agencies tend to move faster on the first placement once they sign you because they actively pitch the roster. Production music libraries place at the highest volume but on the smallest fees per use. The realistic baseline across the industry: assume nine to eighteen months between the first submission and a placement large enough to feel material.
A music licensing company licenses recordings or compositions for use in productions and takes a cut of the licensing fee. A music publisher administers the composition copyright, collects royalties on the composer's behalf, and signs songwriters to long-term deals that may include co-ownership of the composition itself. The two roles overlap (some catalogs also act as publishers) but they are not the same. A licensing-only deal is non-exclusive and time-bound. A publishing deal is typically exclusive and lasts for the life of the copyright. Always read the contract carefully and have an entertainment lawyer review any agreement before signing.
Submit to your 2-3 favorite licensing companies for inbound. Use DropCue to pitch supervisors directly for outbound, and keep 100% of every fee on deals you close yourself.
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