What Does 'Owning Your Masters' Mean In Music?

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First off let’s start with WHAT a MASTER is…. Because it can be a bit confusing when you have to break down songwriters share, composers, and publishing and all the other terminology that can start to get confusing especially if you are just starting to learn about this stuff. 

A master recording is the final recording of your song. Pretty much, the finished, beautifully produced, fully polished, mixed and mastered, song. The version that you end up putting on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Sound Cloud and other streaming platforms.

Now the origination of this term…. Or why it is named that is because back in the day was the MASTER version of the song in which all of the cassette tapes, vinyl records or CDs were made from. 

For example, if they wanted to clone you, because you’re so awesome, you would be the master version that they made all of your clones from. Get me? 

Before we go on and I explain a ton more that might actually blow your mind about the importance of owning your masters… 

I’m Rob Level a music artist who started from the dirt just like you and this is Smart Rapper the number 1 place upcoming music artists to get smarter and turn it from a hobby, to a career. I release videos almost every day on here so hit that subscribe button and click that bell or the least click that like button for me really quick, I appreciate you.  In return I’m gonna help you get Smarter, Right after the intro.

Now there are different things here that can be kind of confusing because some artists don’t even write their own songs yet they do perform the song with their voice and music style right. 

So the composer or producer who makes the beat and songwriter who writes the lyrics could own the rights to the song over all, but the artist who recorded their voice onto the song would own the recording because THEY recorded that version of it. 

The composer will typically own the copyright on the composition itself, or the beat, jointly with anyone who contributed to writing it. The performers or artist (YOU) would hold the copyright for specific recordings made of that composition

I am saying this in as many ways as possible so hopefully you understand. Now most rappers really don’t even care about stuff like this because they just want to make great music and don’t care about the business side. 

And to be honest, I didn’t care about this stuff for a LONG TIME… until I started writing songs for major artists and was writing those songs with platinum producers and songwriters who write songs for super stars. 

Then I had to learn and understand what rights I had in those rooms and what I should be getting when I added my skills to the mix so that I wasn’t getting screwed or walked on. 

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[Jay-vyok]

long as u own em u won't owe em!!

[KiloMrGrams]

If you own the Masters and the publishing that means you are the boss

[docrussojr]

Can't talk about owning your masters without talking about Jay Z. It enabled him to invest in TIDAL streaming services, make multi-million dollar deals with global brands, and it gave him leverage.

[exavion]

Yo people sleep on MJ. He easily was on his way to becoming a billionaire had he been alive! Good info man. Own your master, be independent, put the work, and build the leverage to negotiate whatever deal you see fit for yourself and career!

[Montano]

NBA Youngboy really signed for $2 Million for 5 albums 😂😂 biggest robbery in history

[mxmoodyy]

I am VERY glad that I understand what this means. For the longest i never knew what it meant and I'm glad that I own my masters since I write my own music, engineer and mix it myself :)

[boundlessgold]

WOW man, you really have confirmed my decision with this one to remain solo and keep learning as much as possible and take care of my own business all the way.

[daebabyg]

It's funny you made a video about this because someone just said this to me recently (2 days ago) and I didn't understand what they meant. Thanks Rob~

[PodtrashRadio]

The thing is you don't even need a studio anymore... you can mix & master your songs yourself if you have the technical ability or simply find a great partner who can master your songs for you. Look at someone like Tech n9ne. Dude has done it all independent and made millions on touring and also started his own record label to help others. Independent is the way to go... we have so much technology at our fingertips now to do everything ourselves. Back in the day it used to be a big deal to use some million dollar recording studio and all this expensive equipment. Now you can record a professional sounding song for a few grand in PC equipment.

[ellyknapper]

Thank you for being clear & concise 👍🏼 lots of people might know their stuff, but can’t teach it. Thank you!

[asaiya]

Some real important knowledge right here, please always be careful what you sign!

[difficultwavesrsa]

Rob level smart teacher thank you, you motivated me start my youtube channel

[annastayziaa]

Thank you for explaining the importance of owning our masters 🙏🏻❤️

[sphynxtails]

How many people are here after Megan the stallion had issues w her old Music label?

[we_rebel]

A song has two parts. Composition & Recording. A split sheet is created for both parts. The split sheet assigns future royalties by percent to the contributors. The split sheet gets registered with a performing rights organization, a distributor, SoundExchange and the MLC. These organizations collect royalties. They take a cut, and distribute the remaining royalties to the people on the split sheet. Owning your masters means that your name is on the split sheet.

[ceeaceea]

Always took in the information you dishes out for everyone & it’s always appreciated... but damn I never took the time to listen to your music until today & it’s actually pretty damn fire 🔥

[LucaAnamaria]

Extra grateful that I'm an independent artist. Labels seem so overrated.

[ceciliaf]

Great video! You most definitely explained that so well. I always wondered what that even mean for music artist. Pretty dope! Thanks

[raawboyfresh]

I will most definitely own all my masters! 🔥🔥🔥

[notoriousgoblin]

Glad to see you're dropping videos more often man!