Licensing
Knowing which rights a play triggers does not let anyone play anything. Each triggered right still has to be licensed, and there are three ways the industry does that.
The route is not a choice a service makes once. It is derived per writer share, per right, per territory — which is why one song can be licensed three different ways at the same time.
Before the three columns — which of them are ours
Direct licences only, in the US only.
At launch SNR holds no blanket licences — not the MLC’s, not any society’s. Each right is licensed directly from the person who controls it: they accept their share and SNR’s licence before the release can publish, and are paid by name from the first stream or sale. Everyone who receives money is in the US, streaming is for US listeners, and downloads, backing and memberships are for US buyers. The collective system — an MLC blanket for mechanicals, a PRO for performance — is how most services license. It is how it works elsewhere, and it returns to this platform only when SNR holds a blanket of its own.
Blanket and society routing is not wrong, and nobody here is calling it that. It is how it works elsewhere — it is simply not what SNR does at launch.
Not all of the model is built. Direct resolution and direct payment are live; publishing that still waits for every writer, the US-only participant checks and licence withdrawal are on the policy’s own list of what is not done yet.
Source: ToS/licensing-policy.md §2, §3, §7, §9, §12, Appendix A; docs/DECISIONS.md 2026-09-24
How it works elsewhere — not SNR’s launch route
Blanket — collective licensing
One licence covers a whole collective’s catalogue. The collective (the MLC for mechanical, a PRO for performance) matches usage to rights-holders and pays on its own cycle.
What it gives you
- — Scales to nearly all commercial music
- — The collective does the matching
What it costs you
- — Reporting complexity
- — Mismatch risk — unregistered works sit unmatched until registered
Source: ToS/licensing-policy.md §12 (SNR holds none at launch), Appendix A
SNR is on this one at launch
Direct — negotiated with the rightsholder
The service agrees terms directly with the person who controls the right and pays them by name, in its own cycle. This is SNR’s route at launch, and the only one it takes.
What it gives you
- — Paid by name, itemised, provable
- — No waiting on a collective cycle, and nothing unmatched
What it costs you
- — Requires the payee’s acceptance
- — Only available for what that person controls
Source: ToS/licensing-policy.md §2, §3, Appendix A
SNR is on this one at launch
Waiver / direct grant by a society member
A society member grants the right to the service directly instead of routing it through their society — where the law and the society’s rules allow it. It is how a direct licence is possible at all for a writer who is affiliated.
What it gives you
- — The member is paid by name, in the service’s own cycle
- — No collective deduction, and no unmatched hold
What it costs you
- — Needs the member’s own acceptance, which nobody can give for them
- — Not every society’s rules allow it
Source: ToS/licensing-policy.md §3, §12
Across the industry one recording can involve all three at once: one writer licensed directly, a second covered by a collective’s blanket, a third who has waived. On SNR only the direct and waiver columns are live at launch — the blanket column is the collective system's route, and SNR holds none of those licences.
The block — SESAC / GMR
One co-writer, at any share, can take the whole recording off a service.
SESAC and GMR have no consent decree and no compulsory licence — so performance without a direct grant is blocked, not blanket.
One SESAC/GMR co-writer at any share blocks the whole recording.
ASCAP and BMI are bound by antitrust consent decrees to license any service that asks, on non-discriminatory terms. SESAC and GMR are not, and no compulsory licence stands behind them — so there is no route that does not involve someone agreeing.
The remedy is a direct performance grant from that writer. The decrees govern what a society must do; they never governed what a writer is free to license. That is the same remedy on SNR as anywhere else, which is why the block is stated on the matrix below and not softened.
Source: ASCAP and BMI operate under antitrust consent decrees; SESAC and GMR do not — United States v. ASCAP and United States v. BMI, amended final judgments (S.D.N.Y.); per ToS/licensing-policy.md Appendix A
Source: ToS/licensing-policy.md §3 (the direct licence is the route), Appendix A (no consent decree)
Which of the three we are on
Direct is live. Blanket is not at launch.
There is one route here, not two: every right is licensed directly from the person who controls it, and they accept their share and that licence before the release publishes. A society member is not an exception — their membership is non-exclusive, so they grant the performance right directly too, and SNR reports the usage to their society as directly licensed and paid.
The master is the binding constraint — no master grant, no stream, no fallback. On the composition side there is no blanket to fall back to either, so a share nobody has accepted is held rather than routed anywhere — which is why the release waits for every writer and publisher. What blanket licensing would add, when SNR holds one, is on the resolution matrix.