Recording rights are ridiculously complicated.

Like crop insurance, income taxes, and mobile phone bills – it seems like they are purposely complicated.

For how else can an entire industry rise to sort through all of the details?

You need analysts, and compliance officers, and attorneys, and lobbyist too.

It makes sense that Disney insists on owning 100% of their IP.

A recorded song has two principal sets of rights—the publishing and the master recording. The publishing covers the copyright of the composition, and the master is the sound-recording copyright. The master is the real estate; the publishing is the mineral rights under the land, and the air rights. In addition there are mechanical royalties, which are based on sales, and performance royalties, for when a song is played or performed in public, including on the radio. There are also synchronization rights, for use of a song in a commercial, ball game, TV show, or movie. In some countries (though not in the United States), there are neighboring rights, which are granted to non-authors who are closely connected to the song, such as the performers. The system is ridiculously complicated, as it’s supposed to be.

-John Seabrook, The Song Machine