music catalogs
Recorded works collections
Music catalogs are collections of song rights owned by a publisher, label, or individual.
The term usually refers to the underlying compositions rather than specific recordings—the intellectual property that generates royalties whenever songs are performed, licensed, or streamed.
Major catalogs trade for enormous sums: Sony acquired the Beatles catalog for nearly a billion dollars.
Musicians sometimes sell their catalogs to fund retirement or settle estates.
- copyrightExclusive reproduction rights
- discographyCatalog of musical recordings
- royaltiesOngoing payments to creators
- streaming royaltiesPayments per digital play
- playlistArranged media collection
metadata · database · historical recordings · deep cuts · licensing fees · preservation · cultural heritage · intellectual property · song rights · clearance · library · software tools · collection · performance rights · master recordings · archives · categorization · tagging
- music archivesmanuscripts, phonograph records, demo tapes, scores, opera scores
- music resourcesscores, metronome, songbooks, discographies, tablature
- Music Collectingvinyl records, records, CDs, tapes, manuscripts
- Russian MusicTchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich
music catalogsplaylists
Ordered song collections
shuffle mode · mixtapes · curated selections · live performances · radio airplay
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