Music ownership research

Music Ownership Search

One search, both entries in the ledger: who owns the recording, and who owns the song underneath it — pulled live from Discogs, Spotify, MusicBrainz, and the U.S. Copyright Office.

Search by song title
♫ Spotify / iTunes link
＋ Advanced search
Narrow by details

Filled-in fields are added to your search to narrow results. ISRC/ISWC are exact identifiers — strongest way to skip guesswork if you have them.

Step 1 · What are you using this for?iWe added this first because rights requirements change based on how you're using the song — asking up front means we only show you the license type you actually need, instead of everything at once.

This matters — it determines whether you need master rights, publishing rights, or both, so we only show what's actually relevant to your situation.

Select one or more use cases above to see which rights you likely need.
This is general guidance, not legal advice — requirements vary by venue, platform, and jurisdiction. Confirm with an entertainment attorney or the venue/platform directly before relying on this.
Step 2 · Most likely rights holdersiThis was the most requested piece — figuring out who to actually contact is usually the hardest, slowest part of licensing, so we surface our best-guess match here automatically instead of making you dig through raw search results yourself. The full evidence behind each guess is below if you want to double-check it or pick a different match.
💾 Save this search

Full source detail — double-check this or pick a different match below
Master

Sound recording ownership

Search to see sound recording rights owner data.
See more sources 3

Discography metadata not an ownership source

Search to see release/discography data.

℗ line corroborating signal, not authoritative

Search to see the sound recording copyright line, if available.

Copyright registration history original registrant, not current owner

Search to see US Copyright Office sound recording registration records.
Publishing

Composition ownership

Search to see composition ownership data (mechanicals).
See more sources 4

Community-sourced writer credits research aid, not a legal record

Search to see composer/lyricist credits.

© line corroborating signal, not authoritative

Search to see the composition copyright line, if available.

Copyright registration history original registrant, not current owner

Search to see US Copyright Office registration records.

Performance rights

Step 3 · Draft your license requestiWriting a clear, complete license request from scratch is tedious and easy to get wrong — this turns everything you've entered into a ready-to-send draft so you're not starting with a blank page.
About The Ledger

A research aid, not a legal resource.

The Ledger pulls from several public and licensed data sources to help you find a starting point for identifying who owns a song's recording and composition. It's built to point you in the right direction — nothing it shows constitutes legal advice, and nothing here is a guarantee of ownership.

Always verify anything you find here and consult a qualified entertainment attorney before relying on it for licensing, credit, or legal decisions.