General Licensing Information
In order to license material owned by the Universal Music Group, you must follow the instructions that accompany the Clearance Request Form on this site. Failure to follow these instructions exactly as requested or failure to provide all of the required information on the Clearance Request Form will result in processing delays and/or a denial of your request.
We receive hundreds of licensing requests each week, most of them requiring multiple internal consents. This process takes time. If you need an answer today we can provide one for you but it will not likely be the one you're looking for. Please be patient, we will respond to your inquiry as soon as we possibly can.
You must receive written approval from Universal in order to use our music in your production.
Music Licensing can be an extremely complicated process and we cannot cover all the elements involved in this limited space. Furthermore, we do not have the human resources available to entertain queries about licensing. If you require additional information, please explore the Links page of this site. Many of the sites listed contain excellent primers on licensing, publishing and other aspects of the music business. |
Music Publishing Information
Music Publishers own or administrate song rights and represent the interests of songwriters. Record companies own recorded performances ("recordings") of songs and represent the interests of recording artists. Universal Music Enterprises is a record company. In order to use one of our recording in your production, you must also obtain a license to use the song from the music publisher. We require that you provide us with a copy of the publisher's written approval before we will consider your request. If the publisher denies your request, you cannot use our recording of their song in your production.
If the recording artist is also the songwriter (e.g. Sting), you still need to obtain two seperate licenses. Again, you will need to provide us with written approval from the publisher before we will consider your request.
If the publisher approves your request, we cannot guarantee that your request will be approved by us.
We cannot research publisher/songwriter rights for you. Please visit the ASCAP or BMI websites for information on how to contact a particular publishing company. |
Unions
You may be liable for payments to one or more performers unions (AFM, SAG, AFTRA etc.) as a result of your use of recorded music in your production. Please refer to our formal licensing agreement for more detail and/or contact the unions directly for additional information. Links to the unions are included in our Industry-Related Links section. |
B2B Site Access
The B2B component of our site is restricted to music professionals who are actively engaged in the licensing and placement of music in film, television, commercial, new media and similar productions. In order to gain access to this area, you must first register and accept the Terms of Use. Your request will then be evaluated and a response sent to you within a few days. |
PSAs, Gratis & Charity Requests
Contrary to the policies of many large music companies, Universal will consider gratis or reduced-fee requests from students, low-budget filmmakers, reputable charities and producers of Public Service Announcements. If for some reason your request is denied, we will not be able to provide a detailed explanation as to why. If we need additional information from you in order to process your request, we will get in touch with you.
Otherwise, please assume that your request was considered and for one reason or another, we could not grant the approval. Attempts by you to reverse a denial will result in a more vehement denial and may diminish your chances of clearing music with us in the future.
The only way we can continue our commitment to these types of requests is to limit the amount of time we spend explaining denials to disappointed licensors. |
Album Artwork
We recieve many requests for the use of album cover artwork or photos of our artists in audio-visual productions. Universal may or may not own rights to these materials and we will therefore not grant licenses for their use. |
Additional Information
If you require additional information about licensing a Universal recording, please call our hotline number at 310-865-0770, email the Webmaster or send a fax to 310-865-0116. |
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