Glossary of Music Industry Terms

Whether you’re a newcomer or longtime pro, you know that the music industry has a language all of its own. Knowing the lingo is a smart starting point for making informed career decisions, so here we’ve put together a mini-dictionary of music industry terms for easy reference so that you can boost your knowledge or simply refresh your memory.

Advance: An upfront payment from a record label, publisher, or CMO to an artist or songwriter against future royalties earned from their recordings or compositions. Advances are typically recoupable, meaning the artist or songwriter must earn enough royalties from their music to repay the advance before receiving further payment.

Artist Manager: A manager’s role is to help build and sustain an artist’s career, coordinating everything from recording, touring, and marketing to negotiations with labels, publishers, and agents. The manager guides professional decisions, acts as the artist’s representative and advisor in business matters, and ensures the artist’s creative goals are supported.

Black box income: Black box income refers to royalties that have been collected by a CMO but can’t be matched to their rightful owner, usually because of missing or incomplete metadata such as songwriter names, publisher details, or registration information. These royalties are held temporarily while efforts are made to identify and pay the correct songwriter or publisher. If they remain unclaimed after a set period (which varies by country and organization), the funds are typically distributed pro rata among the society’s affiliated members.

Blanket License: A license, often issued by a performing rights organization (PRO), that gives an entity permission to play any song in the rightsholder’s catalog for a set period of time. Companies that use blanket licenses can include TV and radio stations, restaurants, social networks, and streaming services.

C Line: The © symbol, or C Line, indicates copyright in creative works other than sound recordings. In music, it denotes rights protection for cover art or written materials included with an album, such as liner notes. It can also be used in relation to the underlying musical composition and lyrics. Because the P Line and C Line refer to different rights you will always see them written separately, even when the owner of the rights is the same.

Collective Management Organization (CMO): An organization that manages rights and collects royalties on behalf of songwriters, composers, publishers, and other rightsholders. CMOs license the use of music to businesses, broadcasters, streaming services, and venues, then collect and distribute the royalties generated from those uses to their members. They play an important role in tracking music usage, managing metadata, and ensuring creators are fairly compensated when their works are performed, broadcast, streamed, or reproduced. Examples of CMOs include performance rights organizations (PROs) and mechanical agencies.

Composition: The musical work itself — the underlying intellectual property that exists independently of any specific recording. It includes elements such as melody, harmony, lyrics, and structure. Compositions are protected by copyright.

Digital Service Provider (DSP): A streaming platform (like Spotify) or online store that delivers digital audio to listeners and pays royalties to rightsholders based on usage.

Distributor: A distributor is the company or service that delivers your music from you (or your record label) to stores and streaming platforms. They ensure your recordings are properly uploaded, tracked, and monetized, and that royalties are paid to the correct rightsholders. Distributors also help maximize your reach by making your music available worldwide through the appropriate digital and physical channels.

ISRC: An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a string of 12 alphanumeric characters that is used to identify any sound recording or music video. ISRCs are like ISBNs for books or VINs for cars — no two are identical. ISRCs make recordings automatically identifiable, which helps ensure that royalties are properly distributed. Typically a label or a distributor will assign ISRCs to your music, but in some cases you may need to provide your own. And because this “digital fingerprint” of your track should remain the same forever (regardless of who distributes your track now or who might distribute it in the future), make sure that whoever issues your ISRC codes grants them to you in perpetuity.

ISWC: An ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) is the global identifier for a musical composition (the song itself), not the recording. It identifies the composition, the songwriters and composers, and publishers.

Label Copy: A collection of information that accompanies a sound recording, including artist name, song title, ISRC, composer, publisher, and rights holder. Without this information it is impossible to distribute royalties properly. To see an example, you can look on a CD booklet or vinyl sleeve. In digital music, the label copy is contained within what’s known as metadata.

Lossless: Lossless audio means music is streamed or downloaded in a format that preserves every detail from the original recording — no compression that removes sound information. It delivers the same quality the artist and producers hear in the studio.

Mechanical agency: An organization that issues mechanical licenses for the use of songs, collects mechanical royalties from labels, platforms, and services, and distributes payments to the appropriate songwriters and publishers.

Mechanical royalty: A type of publishing royalty paid to songwriters, composers, and publishers whenever their composition (the underlying song) is reproduced in some form. The term originates from the early days of music reproduction, when works were mechanically copied onto piano rolls, vinyl, and CDs — but today it also applies to digital uses such as streaming and downloads.

Metadata: The collection of liner-notes information embedded in a digital music file. It includes what’s visible on an album or track page (such as track title, artist, and album name) as well as back-end data like release year, label, producer, and identifiers such as ISRC or ISWC. Getting this information right when music is first uploaded is crucial, since it’s used for accounting and ensures royalties are properly distributed for online music use.

P Line: In copyright law, the P Line is specific to musical works (the P stands for “phonogram”) and is represented by ℗. The purpose of this symbol is to indicate that legal rights are held for a sound recording and to identify the owner of those rights. You may have seen this printed on a vinyl sleeve or CD booklet accompanied by the year that the work was first released and the name of the owner of the sound recording. For digital music, the P Line is included within the metadata associated with an audio file.

Performance Rights Organization (PRO): An organization that ensures songwriters, composers, and publishers receive performance royalties when their musical works are broadcast, streamed, downloaded, or played in public venues. PROs license the use of music to businesses, platforms, and broadcasters, collect fees, and distribute payments to their members.

Performance royalty: A type of publishing royalty paid to songwriters, composers, and publishers whenever their composition (the song) is performed or broadcast publicly. This includes uses such as streaming, downloads, radio airplay, TV broadcasts, live concerts, and music played in public spaces. These royalties are collected and distributed through performance rights organizations (PROs).

Publisher: A music publisher helps songwriters and composers manage, protect, and monetize their compositions (the songs themselves, not the recordings). They provide support with song administration, licensing, royalty collection and distribution, and creative development.

Record Label: A record label supports artists in the creation, distribution, marketing, and monetization of their sound recordings (the actual audio people listen to). Labels provide resources and expertise across artist development, recording and production, distribution, marketing and promotion, and rights management to ensure both creative and commercial success.

Recording: A recording (also known as a sound recording or master) is the fixed capture of a musical performance, representing the actual audio that listeners hear. It represents a specific interpretation of a composition and is protected by a separate copyright from the song itself.

Recording royalty: A type of royalty paid to artists, record labels, and other rightsholders for the use of a sound recording (the actual audio of a song). Recording royalties are typically earned when a track is streamed, downloaded, or sold. These royalties are collected and distributed by labels and distributors to the artists involved, based on their contractual agreements.

Rightsholder: An individual or entity that owns or controls the legal rights to a musical work, whether that’s the composition or the sound recording. These rights, protected by copyright, give the rightsholder the authority to license the use of the music and collect royalties when it’s played, streamed, or reproduced. Examples of rightsholders include songwriters, music publishers, record labels, and artists.

Royalties: Payments made to rightsholders whenever their intellectual property is used, for example when a song is streamed, performed, or reproduced. In music, royalties vary depending on which rights are being used. Some apply to compositions (the song itself), such as mechanical royalties and performance royalties, while others apply to sound recordings (the actual recording). Each use of a track can generate multiple types of royalties, which are paid to the relevant parties, including record labels, music publishers, and collective management organizations (CMOs), depending on the territory and rights involved.

Song Identifiers: Five key codes form part of a musical work’s essential metadata. The IPI identifies the songwriter or composer, the ISWC identifies the musical work, the ISRC identifies the specific recording, the IPN identifies the performers, and the ISNI links the other four codes together.

Split Sheet: A document that identifies who did what during songwriting and what percentage of royalties each party is entitled to.

Synchronization: Synchronization (or “sync”) means pairing a song (composition) or a recording with moving images, such as in a film, TV show, commercial, video game, or short-form video content. It comes from the idea of “synchronizing” music with visuals. Anytime a song is synced to a visual medium, a special license is required, called a sync license.

Territory: A geographical area that defines where specific music rights and licenses apply. Most music licensing agreements include territory specifications that determine where your music can be used, streamed, or sold. If a song isn’t licensed for use in a particular territory, it can’t be made available there. When no territorial restrictions exist, music can be distributed worldwide.

UPC: A UPC (Universal Product Code) is a unique 12–14 digit code used to identify your product in digital and physical stores. Similar to an ISRC, it’s a standardized identifier, but while an ISRC applies to individual tracks, a UPC applies at the album or product level. For example, the same album on vinyl, CD, and cassette will each have their own UPC, and the digital version will have a different one as well. If you’re releasing through a label or distributor, they’ll usually generate and manage UPCs for you. If you need to obtain your own, you can register through the appropriate issuing agency in your country (for instance, GS1 in the U.S. or Canada).