How a Music Rights Marketplace Works

What Clearhly is

Clearhly is a marketplace for music licensing. Rights holders list the recordings and songs they control, with the uses, territories and terms they accept. Licensees find what they need and request a license directly from the owner. Negotiation, e-signature and payment all happen on the platform, and every cleared license gets a public clearance number.

Clearhly is currently in private beta.

Who it is for

Rights holders

Record labels, music publishers, publishing administrators, and songwriters or artists who control their own rights. You set which uses you accept, where, and on which deal terms. Requests come in as structured offers you can accept, decline or counter, instead of loose emails.

Licensees

Producers and artists who want to clear a sample, an interpolation, a cover or a remix, and companies that need music for film, TV, advertising, games, apps or online video.

What you can license

• Master rights. Use of the original sound recording, for example in a sample or a sync placement.
• Publishing rights. Use of the underlying song, for example for a cover, an interpolation or a sync placement.
• Both together. Many uses need the master and the publishing, which often belong to different owners.

See sample clearance, sync licensing, cover song licenses and remix licenses for how each use works.

How a deal works

1. Find a listing. Filter by use, genre and territory.
2. Send a request. Describe your project, the use, the territory and your budget.
3. Negotiate. The rights holder accepts, declines or counters. Every offer stays in one thread.
4. E-sign. Both sides sign the license on the platform.
5. Pay through Stripe. Payment is held for 14 days and then paid out to the rights holder.
6. Get a clearance number. Anyone can look up a cleared license by its number to confirm it exists.

Verified rights holders

Every rights-holder business is verified before its first listing goes live. Clearhly checks the business registration, the beneficial owners, a signed statement that the business holds or administers the rights it lists, and EU VAT details where they apply.

Verification confirms that you are dealing with a real business. It does not confirm who owns a specific recording or song, so always check the credits.

Fees

Licensees use Clearhly for free. Rights holders pay a success fee only when a deal clears: 8% of the upfront amount, with a minimum of €9 and a maximum of €1,499. Deals with a revenue share only have a flat fee of €49. See pricing for details.

This page is general information, not legal advice.