Writing music for ads and brands pays differently from releasing your own songs. Instead of earning slowly from streams, you get a fee for a specific job, and the contract decides what the brand can do with your music, where, for how long and who owns it afterwards. Most problems in this work don't come from the music itself. They come from a usage clause nobody read closely.
How a brand music job usually works
A brand or its agency sends a brief: the mood, the length of the spot, a few reference tracks and a deadline that is almost always tight. Sometimes several composers write demos and only one is chosen. Then come revisions, the final mix and delivery in the formats the production needs.
Before you start, clarify:
- whether the demo is paid, and that it stays yours if they don't choose it
- how many rounds of revisions the fee includes
- what exactly you deliver: full mix, shorter cut-downs, stems, a version without vocals
- who pays for singers, session musicians and studio time
Get this in writing, even in an email, before you spend a week on the demo.
Usage terms: media, territory and duration
The fee for brand music is tied to how widely the music will be used. Three questions define it:
- Media: TV, cinema, radio, online video, social media, screens in shops and streets, internal company videos. "All media" is far more than "online only".
- Territory: one country, a region or the world. A campaign for one city and a global launch are different deals.
- Duration: how long the brand may run ads with your music, for example a campaign of a few months, a year or forever.
Also check exclusivity. Can you license the same music to another brand, or to a competitor, during or after the term? Exclusivity has value, and the fee should show it.
Ask what happens when the term ends. A good licence says the brand must stop using the music or pay for an extension, and on what terms. Without that clause, ads have a habit of running for years.
Buyout or licence: what you are actually selling
There are two basic models:
- Licence: you keep ownership and give the brand the right to use the music within agreed limits. If it wants more media, countries or time, it pays again, and the music stays yours to use elsewhere once any exclusivity ends.
- Buyout: one fee covers broad usage, often all media, worldwide and without end, sometimes together with a full transfer of rights. The brand never has to come back to you.
A buyout isn't automatically bad. For a short jingle that only makes sense for this one brand, it can be fair. But the fee should reflect everything you give up. Check whether "buyout" in your contract means unlimited usage or an actual transfer of copyright: these are very different things, and the word is used loosely.
Whether you keep your songwriter share of performance royalties when the ad airs on TV or radio depends on the contract and on the law in your country. Ask about it directly, and register the work with your collecting society if the contract allows it.
Who owns the master and the composition
A track has two parts: the recording, called the master, and the composition, meaning melody and lyrics. In brand work they are often handled separately. The brand may want to own the master it paid for while you keep the composition, or the other way round. Some contracts are written as work made for hire, where the client owns everything from the start.
This decides practical questions later:
- Can you release the track, or a longer version of it, on streaming platforms? Usually only with permission, and often only after the campaign.
- Who may register it in YouTube Content ID? If you register a track a brand is using without agreeing it first, their ads can get claimed, which is a quick way to lose a client.
- Can you use it in your showreel or portfolio? Ask for this right explicitly.
Say Rauf Dəniz writes a 30-second theme for a bakery chain's New Year campaign. He licenses it for online and social media in Azerbaijan for six months, keeps both the master and the composition, and agrees that after the campaign he can release an extended version under his own name. When the chain wants it on TV the next year, it pays again. One page of clear terms made both outcomes possible.
Credits, payment and a short checklist
On-screen credits are rare in advertising, but you can ask to be named in the agency's materials, in the video description online or in press releases. If it matters to you, put it in the contract.
Before you sign, make sure the contract states:
- what you deliver and how many revisions are included
- media, territory, duration and exclusivity
- licence or buyout, and who owns the master and the composition
- what happens after the term and how extensions are agreed
- whether you may release the music yourself and show it in your portfolio
- the fee, payment dates and what happens if the campaign is cancelled
- the credit wording, if there is one
For bigger campaigns, ask a lawyer who knows music or advertising contracts to read it. A few hours of advice are cheaper than one badly written usage clause.