Audio licensing 101: why rerecording can save your campaign

It happens on almost every campaign at some point: someone falls in love with a track, builds the whole edit around it, and then finds out the sync licence costs more than the production budget, or simply isn't available for the platforms and territories you need.

Why the "perfect" track is often the expensive one

Commercial sync licensing for a well known recording involves at least two rights holders, the composition (publishing) and the specific recording (master), and sometimes more if there are multiple writers or labels involved. Rates scale with audience size, duration of use, territory, and exclusivity. A track that feels free on a streaming platform can be a five- or six figure clearance for a global campaign.

The rerecording option

This is where rerecording, sometimes called a "soundalike" or production rerecord, done properly and legally, comes in. We recreate the feel, energy, and arrangement that drew you to the original, performed and recorded from scratch. You get:

Creative freedom. We can adjust length, instrumentation, and intensity to fit your edit exactly, instead of cutting someone else's recording to fit.

Cleared rights. Because it's an original performance and recording, you're not licensing someone else's master, usage terms are yours to define from the start.

Cost control. Production costs are predictable and don't scale unpredictably with audience size or territory the way sync fees can.

What is the difference between publishing and master?

This is the confusion that derails most budgets, so it is worth pulling apart.

Every recorded track carries two separate rights. The composition is the melody and lyrics, and belongs to the writers and their publisher. The master is the specific recording you hear, and usually belongs to the label. To use a well-known track in a commercial you need permission from both, and those two are negotiated separately.

That is also where the classic trap sits. One of the two parties says yes, the team carries on editing, and three weeks later the other party says no or names a figure that does not fit. One yes is not a clearance.

Licence or rerecord: when do you pick which?

When is a rerecording legally risky?

We should be straight about this, because the industry treats it far too casually.

A rerecording sidesteps the master, not the composition. Replay an existing track and you still need the publisher’s permission. What you save is the negotiation with the label and the often higher master fee, not the whole bill.

What you cannot do is imitate a track so closely that it reads as the same work, without that permission. That is not a grey area and there is no shortage of case law. When a project drifts that way, the question is not how close we can get, but which element you actually need: the tempo, the instrumentation, the mood. Those are not protected. The melody is.

How long does a rerecording take?

A focused rerecording of a thirty-second track typically runs one to two weeks from sign-off to broadcast master, including one revision round. That is usually shorter than the sync negotiation for the original, and for a campaign with a fixed air date that often weighs more than the price difference.

If there is vocal on it, add a week for casting and recording.

Does a rerecording have to sound identical?

It should not, and the best ones do not. What draws a team to a reference track is almost never the exact recording — it is a tempo, an instrument, a mood, the way a chorus opens up. Those are the things worth rebuilding.

Working from that angle also removes the legal risk described above, and it usually produces something better: a piece written for your edit and your brand rather than someone else’s, three minutes long, mixed for a different medium a decade ago.

What do you ask before the edit starts?

Four questions, five minutes in total. They are nearly always asked too late.

1. Do we know who the publisher and who the label is? If not, any cost estimate is guesswork.
2. Which territories and what term do we need? The Netherlands, six months, online only is a very different figure from worldwide and in perpetuity.
3. What happens if it falls through? Is there a second direction, or does the whole campaign rest on this one track?
4. When is the delivery deadline? A six-week sync negotiation does not fit a campaign that airs in four.

Answer those four upfront and you usually know within a day which route makes sense. Skip them and you find out in week three.

When licensing the original still makes sense

Rerecording isn't always the answer, if the specific recording itself is the point (a culturally iconic moment, a very recognisable vocal performance), licensing is sometimes worth the cost. The right call depends on budget, timeline, and how much of the impact comes from "that exact recording" versus the underlying feel of the song.

Not sure which way to go for your project? Send us the track and the brief, we'll tell you honestly which route makes sense, whether that's a rerecording or full music for advertising production. Get in touch.