Sounds for Good: Impact Licensing in the Music Sector

Impact Licensing in the music sector refers to a model that ensures intellectual property in music is utilized for social good. It focuses on maximizing positive societal impact while maintaining incentives for creators and stakeholders.

This year's World Intellectual Property Day (2025), themed “IP and Music: Feel the Beat of IP”, serves as a timely reminder of how creative works like music can drive meaningful societal change. While we often associate music with entertainment, it has long played a role in promoting education, social justice, health, and cultural preservation - sometimes without us even realizing its broader potential. This article highlights how impact licensing can help unlock and amplify this potential.

Although the concept of impact licensing is relatively new, music has long been used in ways that create positive societal impact - from fundraising and cultural preservation to education and awareness campaigns. The following examples illustrate how music has already been leveraged for social good, often anticipating the principles now associated with impact licensing.

One significant way impact licensing could be applied to the music industry is by making music available for social-impact purposes at discounted rates. For example, music could be licensed for charity events or fundraising campaigns, helping raise money for important causes. It could also be used to promote awareness campaigns around global issues like climate change, education, or mental health. In such instances, the creators of the music would receive appropriate recognition and compensation while their work contributes to broader societal efforts. These uses demonstrate how music, when supported by thoughtful licensing, becomes a powerful instrument for impact, beyond just commercial value.

An example of such initiative is Music for Relief, founded by the band Linkin Park, an initiative that works to help communities affected by natural disasters and environmental challenges. The band has allowed its music to be licensed for free or at discounted rates for charity events and disaster relief campaigns. The goal is to raise awareness and funds for disaster-stricken areas, while also using music to draw attention to environmental causes.

Another example is the Red Hot Organization is a charity that uses music to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and other social issues. They produced Red Hot + Rio, an album featuring music by prominent artists like David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, and others. The album's proceeds benefited organizations working on HIV/AIDS in Latin America. In this case, the album was licensed for use in various campaigns, with a portion of the sales going directly to support the cause. These initiatives are forms of impact licensing where the band’s intellectual property is used to benefit the global community, supporting efforts to provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

Additionally, music could be licensed for cultural preservation projects, particularly when dealing with indigenous or traditional music, ensuring that the music is used ethically while respecting the rights of the original creators.

The African Music Library is an initiative focused on digitizing and promoting traditional African music, often from marginalized communities, while providing fair compensation to local musicians. Many of these musicians come from remote or underserved regions where traditional distribution and licensing models do not apply. By offering flexible licensing options for streaming platforms, documentaries, and educational projects, the African Music Library helps local artists expand their reach to a global audience. At the same time, it provides access to affordable music for community-driven projects, workshops, and cultural preservation efforts, promoting the use of music in cultural development initiatives across Africa.

Another key aspect of impact licensing in music is its role in supporting purpose-driven organisations. By providing favourable licensing terms, music can become a powerful tool for NGOs, social ventures, or any organizations focused on creating positive social impact. These licensing models enable the organization to amplify their message, reach wider audiences, and support the artists. This mutually beneficial relationship ensures that creators are compensated fairly while their work serves a broader societal purpose.

For example, Soundtrack for a Cause is a platform that connects musicians with social causes and charities, where artists contribute their music to be licensed for nonprofit campaigns, fundraising events, and awareness drives. The platform enables nonprofits to access a library of music at no cost or a reduced rate, while ensuring that the artists are credited for their work. Tidal, the music streaming service, has partnered with several social justice organizations and causes to license music for campaigns and events. For example, during the Black Lives Matter movement, Tidal allowed artists to use their platforms to raise awareness about racial inequality. Through Tidal’s licensing model, artists were able to donate the proceeds from their music streams to related causes or to directly amplify the message of social justice through their music.

Impact licensing can also serve to empower underrepresented artists. Through alternative licensing models, underrepresented and emerging artists, particularly from marginalized communities, could gain greater access to music licensing opportunities. This would allow these artists to reach broader audiences while also providing them with financial resources to advance their careers. The goal would be to make music more accessible to those who might otherwise face barriers to entry in the traditional licensing world.

The Women of the World (WOW) Festival, a global network celebrating women and girls, often includes music as a central part of their advocacy. Through partnerships with various music streaming services, the festival has created (impact) licensing agreements that promote music by underrepresented female artists. These agreements ensure that emerging female musicians, especially those from marginalized or underserved communities, have their music licensed for larger platforms, public campaigns, or media exposure, which amplifies their voices.

Furthermore, music licensing can be incorporated into educational and innovation-focused initiatives. Impact licensing models can allow music to be used in classrooms, workshops, or digital learning platforms at discounted rates, thus supporting educational programs. For instance, music could be used in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs to teach complex concepts in an engaging way, or in music therapy programs aimed at mental health or disability services. By leveraging music in these contexts, students and participants can experience its therapeutic and educational value while also ensuring artists receive support.

Sing Up is a UK-based program that provides schools with access to a wide range of music resources, including songs, sheet music, and educational tools. The program offers a licensing model that allows educators to access music for classroom use at discounted rates. By enabling schools to use music for creative lessons and performances, Sing Up enhances educational outcomes, particularly for students in underserved schools. Music and Memory is a nonprofit organization that uses personalized music playlists to improve the quality of life for people living with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other neurological conditions. By providing music therapy based on personal preferences, the project helps reduce anxiety and agitation, improve memory recall, and create emotional connections for patients. Through impact licensing models, Music and Memory has partnered with streaming services, record labels, and artists to secure music rights at discounted or waived rates for use in therapy programs.

Building on its role in education and empowerment, impact licensing can also help expand access to music in underserved or emerging markets. Flexible licensing models could be established to offer lower fees or alternative terms for music usage in these regions. This would allow local entrepreneurs, social organizations, and community-driven initiatives to use music in ways that promote local cultural development, education, or entrepreneurship. For example, music could be used in apps, social media campaigns, or community-based projects that seek to uplift and empower local populations.

One of the most prominent examples of this approach can be seen in the work of Merlin Network. As a representative of independent music rights holders worldwide, Merlin has entered into a series of licensing partnerships aimed at increasing music accessibility in emerging markets. Its collaboration with Boomplay, a leading music streaming service in Africa, has significantly enhanced the availability of independent music on the continent. Similarly, Merlin’s extended partnership with JioSaavn has broadened the distribution of its members’ catalogs throughout South Asia. These agreements are designed not just to expand market presence but to make diverse musical content more accessible to audiences who might otherwise face economic or infrastructural barriers to access.

Another notable player in this space is Audiomack, a music streaming platform that has pursued a deliberate strategy of inclusion. In Nigeria, Audiomack partnered with the telecom giant MTN to offer affordable data plans that made music streaming more feasible for millions of users. This model recognized that access to content is often not just about licensing costs but also about the affordability of the broader digital ecosystem. In India, Audiomack collaborated with Saregama, one of the country’s oldest and most culturally significant music labels, to increase its catalog and deepen its relevance to local listeners. These efforts illustrate how strategic licensing and partnership decisions can bring music closer to the communities it is meant to serve.

In all these ways, impact licensing has the potential to transform the music industry, making it a tool not just for creative expression but also for societal empowerment, education, cultural preservation, and positive social change. By creating innovative licensing models that encourage access, fairness, and social good, music can benefit both creators and society at large.

While this article focuses on music, many of the scenarios described, such as licensing for education, health, community development, or social justice, could equally apply to other forms of intellectual property, including patents, data, and designs. As the IP community increasingly embraces the idea of using IP for social good, these models offer inspiration for how technology and innovation, like music, can be licensed not just for markets, but for meaning.