How clearance
actually works.
In plain English. What we own, what we hand over, and what your music supervisor still has to do (very little).
The sound we record. The rights we sell.
What FanChants licenses
We license the master recording rights to every chant in the catalogue. The archive is owned by FanChants outright, never sub-licensed from a third party.
This means a licence from us gives you a fully-cleared master. You can edit it, layer it, loop it, embed it into a product or a broadcast.
What about the song underneath?
Many chants are sung to the tune of an existing melody. Most of those melodies are out of copyright. old folk tunes, hymns, traditional songs, music-hall numbers that long ago entered the public domain. Those chants are clean buys: one licence from us and you're done.
A smaller portion of the catalogue is sung to melodies that are still in copyright. We're upfront about which is which:
- Every chant in the catalogue is tagged with its underlying melody.
- For any brief, we'll recommend the cleanest options first. chants with public-domain or in-house melodies that don't need any further clearance.
- If a copyrighted melody is the one you really want, we'll let you know and you can decide whether to pursue that path separately. We don't take that on for you as a routine service.
In practice, the vast majority of our licences are master-only, single-payment deals. The catalogue is large enough that there's almost always a clean alternative.
What we hand over with the audio
- Master rights licence document (length, scope, territory).
- Mastered audio: MP3, WAV, AIFF. Stems available where we have them.
- Lyrics transcript (original and English translation where applicable).
- Underlying-melody attribution and a note on its copyright status.
- Disclaimer text for end credits, if your jurisdiction requires it.
Territories, terms, renewals
Licence length runs from one month to in perpetuity. Territory is single, multi or worldwide. Renewals are simple paperwork and a follow-on quote at a renewal rate.
Exclusivity
We can offer category exclusivity on bespoke licences. For example, you may be the only beverage brand using a given chant in a given territory for a given term. Quoted individually.
Disclaimers and credits
FanChants and Matchday Records audio is independently produced fan chant audio. It is not official club merchandise. We don't use club crests, kit imagery or player likenesses in any part of our product. You don't need to clear anything from FIFA, UEFA or any league body to use the audio. (You may need to clear other things separately, and we're happy to advise.)
How long does it take?
Quote turnaround is typically same day in business hours. Master licences close within 48 hours of agreement, often within 24. Bespoke or tournament-scale deals run on their own timeline, usually a week or two.