One search shows both sides of music ownership — the recording and the composition — so independent artists can give credit and secure licensing without the guesswork.
Create a free account to save searches, keep a running history, and pick up every license request draft again later — all from your dashboard.
Find out who to clear it with before you record or release.
Get a real license moving for a project, not just a guess.
License the music before opening night, not after.
Check ownership before a deal moves any further.
Type any song title — this runs a real search, right here.
Getting permission, in writing, before you use someone else's song — whether that's performing it, filming with it, or building a project around it.
Here's the part most people don't realize: every recorded song is legally two separate copyrights, and depending on how you're using it, you may need permission from both. The Ledger searches both, side by side.
The specific performance captured in the studio. This is the "master." Usually owned by a label.
Sourced from SoundExchange, with Discogs discography details for context.The melody and lyrics themselves, separate from any one recording of them. This is the "composition." Usually owned by a publisher and the writers.
Sourced from the MLC's public musical works database — writers, publishers, ISWC.Three quick steps from a song title to a ready-to-send license request.
Look up a song by title, or paste a Spotify link to auto-fill the details.
We automatically surface who's most likely to own it — master and publishing, side by side — with the full evidence behind the guess if you want to dig in.
Draft a ready-to-send license request, pre-filled with everything you found.
Figuring out who to credit, or who to ask for a license, usually means guessing across scattered, incomplete sources.
If you've built work on other people's music, you're not alone — it's how most choreographers and dance educators build their careers. The Ledger was built inside Range of Motion Recordings to fix the guessing part: one search that separates the two things people usually confuse — who recorded a song, and who wrote it — pointing to the real rights holders behind each.
Search any title or paste a Spotify link — both sides of ownership, one place.
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