Whether you can re-release music after leaving a label depends on one question - who owns or controls the master recordings, and until when. This checklist walks through the contract clauses that decide it, what re-recording restrictions allow, and how to relaunch a reverted catalogue properly.
The short answer
You can re-release your old music if the master rights have reverted to you, the licence term has expired, or the contract never assigned masters in the first place - and you can usually re-record new versions once any re-recording restriction period has passed. You cannot simply re-upload label-owned masters through a new distributor; that creates infringement claims, takedowns and royalty disputes. The answer sits in your contract, so the first step is always reading it - specifically the grant of rights, term, and re-recording clauses.
Step 1: find what the contract actually granted
Label agreements handle master ownership in one of three broad ways, and everything downstream depends on which one you signed:
- Assignment: the label owns the masters outright, often for life of copyright. You cannot re-release those recordings without a reversion or buy-back.
- Licence: you own the masters and licensed them to the label for a defined term and territory. When the term ends, full control returns to you.
- Distribution deal: the label or distributor never took rights in the masters at all - only the right to distribute for a period. These catalogues come back cleanly.
Step 2: check for reversion triggers
Even assignment deals often contain reversion clauses - rights returning to the artist after a set period, on the label failing to exploit the recordings, or on insolvency of the label. Deal-specific triggers like unrecouped-balance settlements or contractual sunset clauses are also common in older agreements. If your label has been dissolved, acquired, or has simply stopped accounting to you, a solicitor's review of the reversion position is worth far more than its cost - dormant catalogues are recovered this way regularly.
Step 3: understand your re-recording restriction
Most label deals include a re-recording restriction - a period during which you may not re-record the same songs for a competing release. These restrictions expire, commonly a set number of years after the term ends or after delivery of the recordings. Once expired, you are free to make new recordings of your own songs and release those - you wrote the songs, and the label's rights were in the recordings, not the compositions. This is the Taylor's Version route, and it is available to independent artists too.
The publishing side is probably already yours
A record deal covers recordings. Unless you also signed a publishing deal, the songs - compositions and lyrics - remained yours throughout, which means performance and mechanical royalties from the label era should have been flowing to you via PRS and MCPS the whole time. Artists leaving labels frequently discover years of uncollected publishing royalties on their own back catalogue, because everyone assumed someone else was collecting. Check this before anything else - it is money that may already be owed regardless of what happens with the masters.
Relaunching a reverted catalogue properly
When the rights are confirmed yours, re-releasing is a metadata and distribution exercise with a few traps:
- Use the original ISRCs if you control them - stream counts and playlist history attach to the ISRC. A re-release under new ISRCs starts from zero.
- If the label owned the ISRCs' registrant prefix, you may need new ISRCs for your reissue - get the work ISWCs linked to the new recordings so publishing collection is not broken.
- Update PPL registrations to reflect the new master ownership, or neighbouring rights payments will keep routing to the old label.
- Take down nothing until the replacement is ready - gaps in availability cost algorithmic momentum that is slow to rebuild.
- Expect takedown friction: if the old label's distributor still has live deliveries, overlapping claims need resolving before or during the transition.
Who this applies to
This checklist is written for:
- Artists whose label deal or licence term has expired
- Artists whose label has folded, been acquired or gone silent
- Artists coming off 360 or development deals with mixed rights positions
- Estates and heirs administering a deceased artist's label-era catalogue
- Managers evaluating whether a back catalogue is worth recovering
What it costs and how to start
Confirming your rights position may need a solicitor if the contract is ambiguous - budget for that separately. The relaunch itself - distribution, metadata remediation, society re-registration and ongoing collection - is what Code Group Music does: distribution and publishing administration run on a 15% commission of royalties collected with no upfront fees, and metadata administration is subscription-based. Start with the free Catalog Assessment at codegroupmusic.co.uk/#catalog-assessment - tell us the label history, and we will map what is recoverable, what identifiers need rebuilding, and what the catalogue could be collecting before you spend anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my old label stop me re-recording my own songs?
Only while a re-recording restriction is in force. Once that period expires, you can record and release new versions of songs you wrote - the label's rights are in the original recordings, not the compositions. Check the restriction's exact end date in your contract before announcing anything.
Do I keep my Spotify play counts if I re-release my old music?
Play counts follow the ISRC. If you control the original ISRCs and redeliver the same recordings, history is preserved. If the label owns the recordings or the ISRCs, your re-recorded versions carry new ISRCs and start from zero - which is one reason to keep original identifiers wherever contractually possible.
My label disappeared years ago and never accounts to me. Can I just re-upload my music?
Not safely - dissolved or silent labels can still own valid copyrights, and successors or administrators may enforce them. Establish the reversion position first, document it, and then relaunch. A catalogue recovered cleanly is also worth more if you later license or sell it.
Were my publishing royalties collected while I was signed?
Only if someone was actually administering them. A record deal does not collect publishing - unless you had a publishing deal or administrator, your PRS and MCPS royalties from the label era may be sitting unclaimed, subject to society claim time limits. Check this first; it is often the largest immediately recoverable sum.
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