Rights Clearance

Audiodrome Toggle Info   |   Last Updated: March 24th, 2026   |   4 min read   |   Glossary

Audiodrome is a royalty-free music platform designed specifically for content creators who need affordable, high-quality background music for videos, podcasts, social media, and commercial projects. Unlike subscription-only services, Audiodrome offers both free tracks and simple one-time licensing with full commercial rights, including DMCA-safe use on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. All music is original, professionally produced, and PRO-free, ensuring zero copyright claims. It’s ideal for YouTubers, freelancers, marketers, and anyone looking for budget-friendly audio that’s safe to monetize.

Rights clearance is the process of identifying who controls the rights in a work and getting the permissions or licenses needed before you use it. In music and video workflows, clearance often means confirming whether you need rights in the composition, the sound recording, the public performance, or more than one of those at the same time.

Quick facts:
Also called: rights clearing, clearance, usage clearance
Applies to: music, video, ads, podcasts, films, branded content, client projects
Used for: confirming ownership, securing licenses, reducing infringement risk, and documenting permission
Not the same as: proof of purchase, fair use, or a platform-only upload check.

One practical example:
A brand wants to use a popular song in a short ad. Clearing that use may require a synchronization license for the composition and a master use license for the specific recording, because using a song in audiovisual content often involves separate rights holders.

Gotchas:

  • Clearance is not one universal permission. A single use may involve different rights in the musical work and the sound recording, and those rights may be controlled by different parties.
  • A sync license alone may not be enough. If you want to use a specific commercial recording, you usually also need a master use license for that recording.
  • Some rights are easier to license than others. HFA issues mechanical licenses for certain reproduction and distribution uses, but sync rights are handled differently and are not covered by the mechanical system.
  • Finding the right owner can be part of the clearance process itself. The Copyright Alliance notes that locating the copyright owner is often a necessary step before licensing can happen.

FAQs

It covers the process of checking which rights apply to your use, finding the relevant rights holders, and getting the needed permissions or licenses before publication or distribution.

No. Buying or downloading a track does not automatically clear all reuse rights. Clearance depends on the kind of use you want to make and the rights attached to that use.

Because one use can touch multiple rights. In audiovisual projects, the composition and the recording are often licensed separately.

No. It can also matter for podcasts, social video, branded content, apps, websites, and other media products. I cannot confirm the required license set without the exact use case, because the needed rights change by format and use.

Keep the license terms, correspondence, invoices, owner details, scope of use, dates, and any restrictions on territory, duration, media, or platform. That helps prove what was cleared and what was not.

Related terms

Synchronization Rights • Sound Recording Rights • Mechanical License • Public Performance License • One-Stop Clearance • License Log • Proof Workflow • Platform-Specific License