5) The “permission economy”: why rights create markets
If music were free to use without permission, there would be no stable market for its use—only informal appropriation.
Rights transform music into a permission-based economy:
- If you want to use the asset, you need authorization (directly or indirectly).
- Because authorization is required, authorization can be priced.
- Because it can be priced, it can be financed, insured, and invested in.
- Because it can be invested in, budgets increase and professional ecosystems form.
This is why rights are not just legal paperwork—they are the infrastructure that makes professional music possible.
Rights create leverage
If you control rights, you hold leverage:
- You can say yes, no, or “yes but on these terms.”
- You can negotiate fees, shares, credit, and creative approvals (in some contexts).
- You can grant permission to one partner while denying it to another.
- You can shape your career strategy by deciding how and when the work is used.
Rights create defensibility
A career is easier to build when your work can’t simply be taken and monetized by others. Rights give you enforceable boundaries, which makes your catalog defensible.