Licence a song for an ad, film or game
Two permissions, usually from two different owners, and a blanket licence is neither of them.
What reaches you, and in what order
Copyright Act 1987
Act 332Section 27(3) requires every licence to be in writing, exclusive or not, so a sync agreed in conversation has no effect at all.
Collecting societies
Licensing bodiesA blanket public performance licence from MACP, PPM or RPM is not a sync licence and never has been. Sync is negotiated directly with the owners.
Contracts Act 1950
Act 136Term, territory, media, exclusivity and the most-negotiated clause of all: what happens on renewal.
Stamp Act 1949
Act 378Stamp within thirty days of execution. Late stamping costs you the unpaid duty plus, under s.47A, RM50 or ten per cent of the deficient duty (whichever is greater) if you fix it within three months of the deadline, and RM100 or twenty per cent (whichever is greater) after that. Since 1 January 2026 most arts agreements fall in Phase 1 of the stamp duty self-assessment system, which means you assess and pay through MyTax yourself and can be audited on it afterwards. LHDN has waived certain 2026 penalties for getting the self-assessed return wrong, but that waiver does not touch late stamping, so an old unstamped agreement is still a full-penalty problem.
Income Tax Act 1967
Act 53The increase is not the worst of it. Section 39(1)(q) disallows the whole fee as a deduction if the tax was not withheld and paid over, and you only get the deduction back by paying the tax and the ten per cent increase. On a six-figure fee that turns a five-figure problem into a six-figure one. The Director General can remit the increase for good cause under s.109(3A), but do not plan on it.
Trademarks Act 2019
Act 815Use of your artist name in the credit or the campaign is a separate question from use of the music.
Berne Convention
TreatyNational treatment means a Malaysian work is protected in the buyer's territory without formality.
The two-rights problem is where almost every Malaysian sync falls over: a brand clears the recording from a label and never clears the song from the writers.
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This page is published by ALIM (Art × Law Initiative Malaysia) as general legal information for Malaysia’s creative communities. It is not legal advice. It does not take your circumstances into account, and reading it does not create a solicitor-client relationship with ALIM or with anyone associated with it.
The law changes. Each Act reproduced here is the Attorney General’s Chambers’ consolidated reprint and carries the date it was consolidated to; amendments made after that date do not appear in the text, and the authoritative version of any Malaysian law is the one published in the Federal Gazette. Subsidiary legislation, state enactments and local authority by-laws may also apply to your situation and are largely outside this library.
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