What rights cover permission to use a musical composition in synchronization with a film or TV show?

• A. Performance Rights
• B. Master Rights
• C. Mechanical Rights
• D. Synchronization Rights

Answer: (D)

Synchronization rights govern the permission to pair a musical composition with visual media, such as a film or TV show. This license lets you place the music in time with the moving images, like scoring a scene to a song. It’s separate from other rights: performance rights cover live or broadcast performances of the music, mechanical rights cover reproducing the composition in copies (CDs, downloads), and master rights cover the actual sound recording. In practice, to use a song in a film, you typically secure a synchronization license from the song’s publisher for the composition, and if you’re using the original recording, you’d also obtain a master use license from the record label for that recording.