Transaction infrastructure for music rights

In the traditional process, a music clearance starts as cold outreach. A licensee identifies a track they want to use, finds or guesses at a contact, and sends an email into a general inbox. Nothing in that first message tells them whether the rights holder licenses that work at all, for that kind of use, or on any terms a production could accept. There is no stated intent on either side before the conversation begins.

So most attempts die silently. The mail goes unanswered because nobody on the other side is tasked with, or authorized for, inbound licensing requests. Licensees cannot tell an interested counterparty from an impossible one, so they spend days chasing answers that never come and eventually drop the idea. Rights holders never see the qualified demand that quietly gave up. No negotiation failed, because no negotiation ever started.

Ownership structure compounds this. Composition and sound recording rights are separate works, commonly split across publishers, labels, songwriters and other rightsholders, so even identifying who to approach is uncertain before any reply is possible. But the deeper failure is earlier: without an upfront signal that a rights holder is open to licensing, the market has no reliable starting point for a deal.

IFPI reports that global recorded music trade revenues reached US$29.6 billion in 2024, up 4.8% year on year and the tenth consecutive year of growth. Behind that growth sits constant commercial demand for existing recordings across advertising, film, television, games and online video. Much of that demand is lost before it can transact, because licensees have no way to see which rights holders are open to licensing, for which uses, on which terms.

Supply is not concentrated only in major catalogs. Worldwide Independent Network's copyright-ownership analysis measured independent companies at 39.9% of the global recorded music market in 2017. Although historical, that measurement demonstrates the lasting structural point: a large share of valuable repertoire sits with independent rights holders who have no licensing desk and no visible channel for inbound offers. Making that supply's intent visible is the opportunity Clearhly addresses.

The core mechanic is the listing itself. A rights holder states upfront, per work, that they are open to licensing and on what usage types, territories and terms. That converts a cold guess into a standing signal of intent before anyone reaches out. Contributor confirmations, holder and licensee workspaces, role-based teams, review queues and transactional communications then support what happens after the intent matches: negotiation, approval, payment and record.

1. 01A verified rights holder publishes structured availability and terms.
2. 02A licensee submits the intended use, territory, term and commercial offer.
3. 03Both parties negotiate, confirm authority and sign the generated agreement.
4. 04Payment settles through Stripe Connect and the license can be publicly verified.

Listing catalog is free and there is no subscription. Clearhly charges the rights holder one flat success fee when a clearance is approved and signed. The fee is deducted at settlement. Licensees pay no platform fee.

Fees range from $49 to $1,499 per completed deal. The flat schedule keeps the charge transparent, aligns Clearhly with completed clearances and reduces the effective rate as deal value increases. The current schedule is also published on the pricing page.

1. 1. IFPI, Global Music Report 2025. Global recorded music trade revenue reached US$29.6 billion in 2024, up 4.8%, marking a tenth consecutive year of growth. View source
2. 2. Worldwide Independent Network, WINTEL 2018. Independent record companies represented 39.9% of the global recorded music market at copyright ownership level in 2017. This figure is historical and is shown as evidence of a structurally broad rights-holder base, not as a current market-share estimate. View source
3. 3. U.S. Copyright Office, Musical Works, Sound Recordings & Copyright. A musical work and a sound recording are separate protected works, subject to different rules and commonly owned and licensed separately. View source
4. 4. Universal Music Group, Film & TV Licensing FAQ. UMG describes clearance as obtaining all required permissions and distinguishes the synchronization license for the composition from the master-use license for the recording. View source