Licensing on Sync.Land

Fair terms for creators.
A real business for artists.
One catalog, three ways to license.

Independent artists set the terms. Filmmakers, podcasters, game devs, and creators pick the tier that fits the project. Every license ships with a PDF certificate and an on-chain Cardano receipt — provable, portable, and permanent.

For creators licensing music · skip below to the tiers For artists supplying music · keep 70% of every sale

Three tiers. One catalog.

Start free for creator-scale use. Upgrade when the project outgrows the caps. For everything else — broadcast, feature film, brand campaigns — talk to us.

Free tier · SLFS-v1

Free Sync License

MP3 · SLFS-v1.0-2026-07-11

Free

No credit card, no signup gates on the license itself.

Personal, education, non-profit
User-generated content on YouTube, TikTok, Reels, Twitch
Independent podcasts (public RSS)
Game jams & open-source game builds
Attribution required on every distribution
Caps: 100k views · 12 months · small-scale only
Cross a cap → 30-day cure window → upgrade

Browse the Free Sync catalog

Most used

Paid tier · Non-exclusive

Commercial Sync

WAV + Stems where available

From $49 per song

Artist keeps 70%. Sync.Land takes 30% platform fee.

No attribution obligation
Monetized YouTube, paid ads, sponsored content
Independent film, streaming series, paid podcasts
Commercial video games & interactive media
Per-project license valid forever
Instant PDF certificate + downloadable master files
Cardano NFT receipt for tamper-proof provenance

Browse the Commercial catalog

Bespoke · Negotiated

Custom & Exclusive

Direct with the artist

For placements the standard tiers weren’t built for.

Exclusive holds and buyouts
Broadcast & TV network placements
Theatrical film releases
Major-brand ad campaigns
AAA video-game titles & SVOD original content
AI training corpora and dataset licensing
Awen team negotiates directly with rights-holders

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The Free Sync tier isn’t a giveaway.

It’s the first stage of a designed upgrade path. When a creator’s project outgrows the caps, the license doesn’t vanish — it converts to a paid tier with thirty days to complete the upgrade. That’s the difference between a viral hit that pays nobody and one that closes an invoice.

01 · ISSUE

Free Sync license issued

Creator picks a track, agrees to SLFS-v1 terms, downloads the MP3 and PDF, and starts using it.

02 · TRIGGER

Project crosses a cap

100,000 cumulative views, 12 months elapsed, or the project needs a reserved use (broadcast, paid ad, SVOD, etc.).

03 · CURE

30-day cure window opens

Project can stay live during the cure period. Creator receives a paid-tier invoice with the exact scope of the new license.

04 · UPGRADE

Commercial or Custom license issued

Old free grant is superseded by the paid license. Artist gets 70% of the sale. On-chain record is updated with the new version tag.

Under a plain Creative Commons license, that same viral video would have paid the artist zero, forever. Under SLFS-v1, the upgrade is the point.

Why this works — for both sides.

Sync.Land is a two-sided marketplace, and the licensing structure is designed so both sides get something the incumbents can’t offer.

For creators using music

Clear scope. Real proof. No sudden takedowns.

You know exactly what you’re allowed to do, what the caps are, and what happens when you cross them. No demonetization surprises, no orphaned licenses, no PROs quietly issuing invoices later.

The free tier is genuinely free. Under 100k views on your monetized YouTube or podcast? You pay nothing and owe attribution — that’s the whole deal.

The paid tier is per-project, forever. Commercial Sync licenses don’t expire. Your placement is cleared for the project, in perpetuity, with a PDF and an on-chain receipt.

Proof that survives platform bans. Every license mints as a CIP-25 token on Cardano. If YouTube ever flags your video, you have provable licensing without digging through emails.

Cure over enforcement. If your project grows past a cap, you get 30 days to convert to a paid tier — no penalty, no takedown, just a real invoice.

For artists supplying music

Free exposure that upgrades into paid revenue.

The Free Sync tier isn’t you giving away your work. It’s a distribution engine where every use above a threshold becomes a real invoice — and Sync.Land pays 70% of every sale back to the artist.

70% of every sale, transparently split. Sync.Land takes a 30% platform fee. You keep the rest. Payouts to PayPal or your tip-jar email — no month-long escrow, no PRO middleman.

Non-exclusive by default. Keep your Spotify, Bandcamp, BroadJam, or anywhere else you’re distributed. Sync.Land only asks for the sync/master rights it actually licenses.

PRO, mechanical, and moral rights preserved. Nothing in the Free Sync License waives your public-performance royalties, mechanical royalties, neighboring rights, or moral rights. Those stay yours.

Auto-upgrade converts free views into paid deals. Every Free Sync license carries a 100k-view / 12-month / reserved-use trigger. When someone’s creator content blows up using your track, they upgrade — and you get paid.

Every license lives on Cardano.

Sync.Land issues a CIP-25 token to the licensee’s wallet (or a Sync.Land custody address if the licensee hasn’t connected one) for every license issued. It’s an authoritative, timestamped, tamper-proof record that anyone can verify on Cardanoscan — independent of Sync.Land’s own database.

What’s on chain Song ID, artist name, license tier, version tag (SLFS-v1.0-2026-07-11 for free-tier records), and a fingerprint of the licensee.

Free Sync mints Zero-cost mint on Cardano preprod during Catalyst pilot, free mainnet mint at launch. Licensee pays no network fee.

Commercial mints Standard $5.00 NFT fee covers Cardano network + NMKR minting infrastructure. Optional.

Common questions

What counts as a “view” for the 100k cap?

Cumulative views, streams, or downloads of the project that contains the track — across every platform it’s distributed to. A video with 40k YouTube views and 65k TikTok views is over the cap. Views before the license was issued do not count.

What happens if I don’t upgrade during the 30-day cure window?

The Free Sync license terminates automatically. Your project needs to either take down the affected work or replace the track. Sync.Land does not send DMCA takedowns during the cure window — the enforcement is on the licensee’s side, in good faith.

Do I need a Cardano wallet to license a song?

No. Licenses can be issued to a Sync.Land custody address by default. If you later connect a Cardano wallet, you can claim the NFT receipt into it. Nothing about the license itself requires wallet ownership.

Does the Free Sync tier grant PRO or performance-rights royalties?

No. The Free Sync License explicitly reserves PRO / mechanical / neighboring rights and moral rights. If your project uses the track in a public-performance context that would trigger an ASCAP / BMI / SESAC / PRS obligation, you’re responsible for clearing that separately. Sync.Land licenses the sync grant only.

How do artist payouts work?

When someone licenses your song via the Commercial Sync tier or upgrades from Free Sync, the sale clears through Stripe. Artist share (70%) is paid out to the payout method on file (PayPal by default) once the funds clear.

Can I use Free Sync catalog tracks in a monetized podcast?

Yes, as long as it’s an independent podcast on a public RSS feed and you include the required attribution. Podcasts distributed via subscription platforms (Spotify Original, Apple Podcasts+) are a reserved use — those need a Commercial Sync license.

What about existing licenses issued before this page went live?

All licenses issued before 11 July 2026 were issued under CC-BY 4.0 and remain valid under their original terms. SLFS-v1 is not retroactive. It applies to new Free Sync licenses from 11 July 2026 forward.

For creators using music