No. 22Rights & Licenses
Copyright Assignment
Also called copyright transfer, rights assignment, assignment of copyright
A permanent transfer of your copyright ownership to the label, as opposed to a licence for a limited term.
High risk
Assignment permanently transfers ownership; a licence would achieve the same commercial purpose while preserving your eventual ownership.
- Appears in
- Recording Agreement, Publishing Deal, 360 Deal
- Topic
- Ownership & Copyright
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- Reviewed
- July 2026
In plain English
Copyright assignment transfers the ownership of your recordings (and potentially your compositions) from you to the label permanently. This is different from a licence, where you grant the label the right to use your work for a defined period while retaining ownership. Assignment cannot normally be undone, while a licence expires.
Why it matters
Once assigned, you no longer own your recordings. You lose the right to decide how they are used, sold, or licensed, potentially forever. The 35-year US statutory termination right is the only legal mechanism to reclaim assigned recordings.
Where it can land
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
- Full copyright assignment in perpetuity with no reversion
- Assignment covers both master recordings and underlying compositions
- No acknowledgment of artist's 35-year termination right under US copyright law
- Assignment with reversion rights (better, but still gives up ownership during the term)
- Assignment includes a broad 'all rights now known or hereafter devised' clause
- Exclusive licence rather than outright assignment
- Term-limited licence with reversion of all rights at expiry
The language
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.