Blog · Licensing
The Filmmaker's Guide to Music & SFX Licensing
By George · October 22, 2026 · 2 min read
Footage licensing is comparatively simple. Audio is where filmmakers get caught out — because a single track can bundle several different rights, and platforms ask about all of them. This guide covers the concepts; for Brollvia downloads specifically, your licence record and certificate are the operative documents.
The rights inside a track
- Sync — permission to pair the audio with picture. This is the core right a stock library grants.
- Master — the specific recording, as opposed to the underlying composition.
- Performance — broadcast and public performance, usually handled by broadcasters and collecting societies rather than by you.
SFX are simpler — mostly
Individual sound effects (rain, room tone, a door slam) are typically licensed like footage: download, use in your production, keep the record. The subtleties appear when effects are bundled into someone else's library product — reselling raw SFX as a library is the classic prohibited use, here as elsewhere (see what the licence covers).
Practical habits
- Download through your account even for “quick tests” that might ship — the licence record is created at download, and it is dated.
- Keep certificates with the project files; broadcasters and clients ask.
- Note loops and BPM in your project notes — Brollvia lists both for audio assets, which makes conforming music to picture far less painful.
Browsing audio starts at search filtered to audio; going Pro unlocks the full library and originals.
licensing music sfx